India’s data centre push runs into farmers’ resistance
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This article was originally published in Rest of World, which covers technology’s impact outside the West.
India is aggressively courting US big tech to set up data centres in the country. But this push is colliding with a very different reality on the ground.
In February, the Indian government announced a 20-year tax holiday for foreign cloud service companies using India-based data centres to serve global customers. The move is aimed at positioning India as a global hub for artificial intelligence infrastructure, and encouraging companies like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon to boost their commitments.
However, their existing data center projects in the country are running into roadblocks.
Google and Microsoft are both facing pushback from farmers against their data centres under construction in India. Farmers have said they are being pressured to give up land even as protests continue. Local activists warn that the same policies driving investment are also limiting farmers’ ability to resist.
“The union government and several state governments are solely looking at this as an investment issue, rather than a political-economy concern,” Indumugi C, a lawyer associated with digital rights organization Internet Freedom Foundation, told Rest of World. In March 2026, Indumugi authored a factsheet that highlighted the shortcomings of Indian regulators in creating clear policies about setting up...