Science and Technology › Computing and AI
Semiconductors, computing hardware and data centres
Chips, computing hardware and data centres: how chips are designed and made, India's semiconductor programme, supercomputers, export controls on chips, and the power and water a data centre draws. Prelims has asked where India's semiconductor plants are.
Showing 2 of 8 subjects, those that changed from 1 to 15 August 2026.Show all
Data centres
Water and cooling
Copy link to Water and coolingPrelims and Mains
Cooling is the demand that meets a local limit first. The heat is carried away by water, and a large facility drinks it by the tanker load every day of the year.
- A 100 MW data centre uses about 2 million litres of water a day.
- A conversation of 20 to 50 exchanges with a chatbot may use about half a litre of that water.
What changed
Siting and environmental clearance
Copy link to Siting and environmental clearancePrelims and Mains
Where the new capacity lands decides whether its water demand can be met at all. The clustering has been towards States that are already short of water, and neither the incentive package nor the clearance regime asks the question.
- Facilities are clustering in water stressed Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Telangana.
- State incentives require neither a water disclosure nor a grid impact assessment.
- Environmental clearance is needed only where the centre forms part of a building project over 20,000 sq m or a township.
- That clearance is granted by the State Environment Impact Assessment Authority.
What changed
2 Sep 2026
9 Aug 2026
26 Jul 2026Update
- Residents of Thane protested on 18 July against a hyperscale data centre of about 54 acres that needs about 422 MW of continuous power. The company puts its water need at 125 kilolitres a day, the municipal corporation says it will supply 12 million litres a day of recycled sewage water, and the city is already short by 40 million litres a day. In Visakhapatnam and Anakapalli, about 601 acres allotted for a 1 GW hub drew objections over water, power and nearby forest.
- Maharashtra cut the green energy requirement for such projects from 100 to 51 per cent in June 2026.
- Also in news: New York State halted large new data centres on 14 July, and Amsterdam and Singapore have used moratoriums or quotas.
The Hindu, 26 Jul 2026: Why are mega data centre projects facing stiff resistance? (opens in a new tab) · Frontline, 7 Aug 2026: A residents' campaign against a hyperscale data centre inside Thane city has turned data centre siting into a mainstream environmental dispute in Maharashtra, with water, power and heat as the contested grounds. (opens in a new tab) · The Indian Express, 23 Jul 2026: Data centre construction is being halted abroad over power, water and local costs, as India expands its own (opens in a new tab)
Background reading: PIB, 12 Aug 2026: Data centres: power, water and environmental clearance (opens in a new tab)
Also filed elsewhere
- Photonics · on Satellite and emerging communications
Photonics is where India's chip policy meets its network hardware: the parts that carry a signal as light rather than as current.