Dr Sanjay Gambhir, Executive Director, India, Head – Buildings + Places, AECOM
As data centre infrastructure grows in both complexity and scale, the role of design consultants has moved from execution partners to strategic advisers, helping operators navigate technology shifts and the challenge of building for a constantly changing demand curve. In a recent panel discussion at tele.net’s 9th Annual Conference on Data Centres in India, held in Mumbai in April 2026, Dr Sanjay Gambhir, Executive Director, India, Head – Buildings + Places, AECOM, spoke on India’s design ecosystem, state government engagement, consolidation and the 100 per cent renewable dilemma. Edited excerpts from his remarks…
Moore’s law and the pace of change
Gordon Moore said in 1965 that the number of transistors on a chip would double every year. He revised that to every two years by 1973. Since around 2015, we have been seeing that doubling happens every two to two and a half years. Technology is changing very fast, and operators are struggling to keep pace. AECOM has been in the data centre design space for nearly 10 years, and from our vantage point, after a slight lull in 2024 and into 2025, the market has turned distinctly bullish over the past one and a half years. Artificial intelligence is the primary driver, and managing the pace of that demand, alongside the changing requirements of clients mid-project, is the defining challenge for operators today.
India’s design ecosystem is a genuine advantage
India started building its data centre design ecosystem almost 15 years ago, which puts it in a stronger position than many assume. We had clients, we had operators, and we built the design capability together over time. India does not have that problem to the same degree. We have the foundation. Talent shortage is real, but the base is there. Operators are investing significantly in operations and maintenance training for new technologies, and that effort is visible.
We are in a good position, particularly as overseas cloud operators can now receive subsidies for using Indian data centres. This kind of policy support has rarely been seen in any sector before, and it is a direct result of the collective effort of the entire ecosystem.
State governments become active participants
Over the past eight months, we have seen a significant surge in enquiries, not just from private clients but from state governments as well. There was a time when no state was willing to frame a data centre policy. That has changed. Odisha is a clear example. State governments have begun to understand that digital infrastructure is a catalyst for broader social and economic goals, including telemedicine, e-commerce, financial inclusion and education. Manufacturing-led digitisation is also reinforcing this, with data centres and advanced manufacturing becoming a compelling proposition for multiple states. Diversification and penetration beyond the established metro markets will happen, and the policy conditions are now forming to support it.
Consolidation is a structural inevitability
I come from the power sector, where we saw the mushrooming of energy companies in the 1990s and 2000s, followed by consolidation. The same happened in IT, in transmission, and in telecommunication. It will happen in data centres, too. Over the past three years, clients have been pushing hard on both capital expenditure and operational expenditure, because business models must be viable. Consolidation will take time because the Indian market is still maturing in terms of its product mix, moving from storage-led to processing-led workloads. But it will happen, and there is no doubt about that.
The 100 per cent renewable challenge
The intent across operators to use renewable energy is genuine, and government support through open access, power purchase agreements and interstate wheeling has made the framework more enabling. A significant trend we are watching is renewable energy players themselves entering the data centre business, which signals that the importance of sustainability, and environmental, social and governance principles is being taken seriously across the value chain.
Efforts are underway to integrate renewable energy sources such as wind, solar, gas and hydrogen with conventional energy systems. However, their acceptance in terms of technical reliability and commercial viability has yet to be established. Our responsibility as a design consultant is to develop solutions that are cost-competitive and commercially viable, not just technically possible. That is what we continue to work towards.
