Modi's AI ambitions clash with Indian residents opposing data centre expansion

Tushar Shetty, 46, bought his apartment on Mumbai's 21st floor five months ago for the view. What stretched beyond his window was open green space—trees, earth, the kind of quiet that justifies a premium address. Today, that view is gone. In its place is a construction site, red earth scarred where an Amazon data centre is rising as part of the company's planned $21 billion investment in AI infrastructure across India by 2030. "I would not have bought the house if I had known," Shetty said. He is one voice in a growing chorus of resistance that is reshaping how India's government and its tech partners think about the physical backbone of artificial intelligence.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has staked a significant portion of his economic vision on a simple premise: if India cannot yet compete with the United States and China in building frontier AI models, it can dominate something equally valuable—the infrastructure that runs them. Data centres are the invisible machinery of the digital age, and Modi's government has positioned India as the place where the world's data will live. Amazon, Google, and Microsoft have responded with commitments totaling more than $56 billion in combined investments. The strategy is ambitious and, on paper, economically sound. But it collides directly with the lived reality of people who live near where these facilities are being built.

The tension is not unique to India. From Virginia's suburbs to the edges of Amsterdam and Dublin, residents have mounted increasingly vocal campaigns against data centre expansion, citing noise, electricity consumption, water depletion, and the sudden industrialization of neighbourhoods that were once residential. What makes India's situation acute is the underlying scarcity. The country holds only 4 percent of the world's freshwater while supporting 18 percent of its population. Data centres are clustering in cities already experiencing water stress. According to S&P Global, between 60 and 80 percent of India's data centres could face high water stress within this decade. In 2025 alone, data centres consumed approximately 150 billion litres of water. That figure is projected to more than double by 2030, according to research from Mordor Intelligence.

The Amazon project near Mumbai has become the most visible flashpoint. Reuters interviews with more than two dozen residents and a review of official correspondence reveal deepening anxiety about strain on local power and water supplies and noise that residents say poses particular risks to children and the elderly. On September 8, hundreds of residents gathered beside the 54-acre site holding signs that read "Data centres are energy vampires." Among them was Vasudha Shetty, 62, who purchased a flat near the facility but now wants to leave. "If the data centre stops, we will stay," she said. "If it goes ahead, we will move." More than 1,000 residents say the project was advanced without genuine community consultation.

Amazon has defended the facility, stating that water and power will come from dedicated sources separate from public utilities, and that water-free cooling technology and noise-mitigation measures are in place. The company noted that more saplings were planted than trees removed. Yet even some industry leaders question the logic of placing data centres in residential areas. Sharad Agarwal, CEO of Sify Infinit Spaces, which operates 14 data centres, said bluntly at an industry event in September: "I will never set up a data centre in a residential area. Centres need abundant, uninterrupted power and water, and near homes they risk being starved of both in a shortage."

The political dimension is sharpening. In Andhra Pradesh, environmentalists are opposing Google's $15 billion data centre project, citing threats to wildlife and water supplies and alleging that temple land was used without permission. Google and state officials deny wrongdoing. In Mumbai, opposition legislator Aaditya Thackeray joined protesters in September, pledging that his party would relocate the Amazon project if returned to power. Property broker Atul Jadhav reported that buyer concerns over views and property values may already be depressing resale prices in affected neighbourhoods.

Modi's government has mounted a public defence, promoting data centres online as "the invisible engines powering India's digital life" and arguing that modern technologies use water and electricity more efficiently than older infrastructure. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, the Prime Minister's Office, and Maharashtra's chief minister's office did not respond to requests for comment. Internally, according to a person familiar with Amazon's planning, the company is not deeply concerned because government officials have indicated the protests will eventually subside. Still, Amazon is developing community outreach plans to address noise, water, and power concerns. "Building data centres comes at a cost," the person said. "For now there is no other option but to live with protests."

What unfolds in Mumbai and Andhra Pradesh will likely shape how India pursues Modi's ambition to host the world's data. The strategy depends on both government support and community tolerance. As water stress intensifies and residents organize, that tolerance is visibly thinning. The question is no longer whether data centres will come to India—they are already here. The question is whether they can coexist with the people whose neighbourhoods they are transforming.