The Indian data centre market is witnessing strong momentum, driven largely by accelerating digitalisation, rapid adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and sustained investment interest, supported by a steadily evolving policy environment. The segment is also entering a new build phase, as operators begin preparing for higher density, AI-ready capacity, which is reshaping decisions on design, power and cooling, and ecosystem partnerships. The Digital Personal Data Protection (DPDP) Act is moving closer to active enforcement, and energy and sustainability priorities are becoming more central to project planning. In this context, Seema Ambastha, Chief Executive Officer, Larsen & Toubro-Vyoma, share her views on the key developments in the past year, policy expectations and gaps, power and green energy initiatives taken, and strategic priority areas for the future…
What were the most significant developments in the data centre space during 2025?
The year 2025 marked a structural shift for the data centre industry in India, moving decisively from capacity expansion to capability-led infrastructure development. The most significant development was the rapid rise of AI-driven workloads, which fundamentally changed how data centres are designed and operated, from power density and cooling architectures to network design and operational resilience.
Equally important was the growing emphasis on data sovereignty and regulatory readiness. As digital adoption accelerated across government, banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), healthcare and other regulated sectors, infrastructure decisions increasingly prioritised data residency, governance and compliance by design. Data centres are now recognised as strategic national digital infrastructure, and not merely as backend facilities.
At Larsen & Toubro-Vyoma, these trends are reflected in our AI-ready data centre footprint, including our campus at Sriperumbudur, Chennai; and our expansion in Navi Mumbai, where we recently commenced development of a 40 MW green, AI-ready facility at Mahape, the first phase of a planned 100 MW campus. These investments reflect the industry’s evolution towards high-density, secure and future-ready digital infrastructure.
What is the industry’s strategy for managing the transition from traditional storage hubs to high density AI-ready data centres, while balancing the massive cost premium of AI-ready infrastructure?
The transition to AI-ready data centres represents one of the most capital-intensive and technically complex shifts that the industry has undertaken. AI workloads introduce significantly higher demands on power, cooling and network performance, making cost discipline and design efficiency critical.
The industry’s response has been a phased, modular and workload-aligned strategy. Rather than speculative overbuilds, operators are now designing facilities that can scale density incrementally as demand matures. This includes higher rack densities, graphic processing unit (GPU)-ready layouts and advanced cooling approaches such as liquid and hybrid cooling, which improve efficiency at scale.
Hybrid and sovereign cloud architectures are also playing a central role, enabling enterprises to selectively deploy AI workloads, while balancing performance, compliance and the total cost of ownership. At Larsen & Toubro-Vyoma, AI readiness is approached holistically, combining hyperscale-ready data centre design, GPU-enabled infrastructure and sovereign cloud platforms to deliver performance, resilience and governance without compromising efficiency.
As the DPDP Act moves from policy to active enforcement in 2026, what impact will it have on the industry? Is there any support that the industry needs from the government to ensure compliance?
The enforcement of the DPDP Act in 2026 will be a defining moment for India’s digital infrastructure ecosystem. The act reinforces the need for data residency, accountability, auditability and controlled access, particularly for organisations handling personal and sensitive data.
For the data centre industry, this necessitates a shift towards compliance-by-design, where infrastructure is architected to meet regulatory requirements from inception rather than through retrofitting. This is accelerating the adoption of sovereign cloud platforms, where data, operations and governance remain firmly under Indian jurisdiction.
From a policy perspective, continued collaboration between industry and government will be important, particularly around implementation guidelines, certification frameworks and transitional timelines. Clear and pragmatic frameworks will help ensure strong compliance, while enabling innovation and scale. Larsen & Toubro-Vyoma’s sovereign cloud infrastructure is designed to support DPDP-aligned workloads, enabling enterprises and public sector institutions to meet regulatory obligations with confidence.
What initiatives is the industry taking for better power management and transitioning towards green energy?
Power management and sustainability have become central to the future of the data centre industry, especially with the rise of AI-driven compute. The industry is responding through energy-efficient design, intelligent power management systems and increased adoption of renewable energy.
Advanced cooling technologies, including liquid and hybrid cooling, are enabling higher efficiencies at increased rack densities, while improvements in electrical design and monitoring are optimising power utilisation. At the same time, operators are integrating renewable energy sourcing and low-carbon operational practices into their long-term infrastructure strategies.
At Larsen & Toubro-Vyoma, sustainability is embedded across our entire data centre portfolio. Our facilities are designed with power usage effectiveness (PUE) targets aligned to global efficiency benchmarks, resilient power architectures and high-efficiency cooling systems, enabling performance at scale without disproportionate energy overheads. The Mahape facility builds on this foundation with next-generation cooling and low-carbon design principles, reinforcing our commitment to responsible and sustainable digital growth.
What will be your primary focus areas and strategic priorities for 2026?
Looking ahead to 2026, the data centre industry will move decisively from incremental expansion to purpose-driven scale, where infrastructure growth is tightly aligned with AI adoption, regulatory certainty and long-term sustainability. The focus will be on building platforms that are not only powerful and scalable, but also trusted, compliant and resilient by design.
At Larsen & Toubro-Vyoma, our priorities are centred on deepening sovereign cloud capabilities, scaling AI-ready and high-density data centre infrastructure, and advancing integrated platforms that enable secure, policy-aligned digital transformation for enterprises and public sector institutions. We see sovereign, AI-enabled infrastructure as foundational to India’s digital future, supporting everything from enterprise innovation to national digital missions.
Equally critical will be continued investment in operational excellence, cyber resilience and governance frameworks, ensuring that infrastructure remains dependable as workloads become more complex and mission critical. As digital systems increasingly underpin economic growth and institutional trust, India-first, sovereign, AI-ready data centre infrastructure will play a defining role in shaping the country’s next phase of digital progress.
