India’s rapidly expanding data centre sector is expected to generate close to one lakh engineering jobs by 2030, Union Minister of State for Science and Technology Dr Jitendra Singh said on Friday, May 22, 2026. India’s data centre capacity is projected to grow from roughly 1.5 gigawatts today to nearly 6.5 GW by 2030, with the resulting build-out creating high-skilled roles across AI systems, cooling technologies, smart grids, renewable energy integration and advanced digital infrastructure.
Singh was delivering the keynote address at the special session on “Future-Proofing India’s Data Centres: Resilient Supply Chains and Opportunities,” held during the Annual Leadership Summit of the American Chamber of Commerce in India (AMCHAM) in New Delhi.
“India is entering a decisive phase where data centres, artificial intelligence, quantum technologies and next-generation digital infrastructure will shape the future global economic order,” Singh said, asserting that the world increasingly looks to India for technology partnerships rather than India depending on external breakthroughs.
The minister described data centres as the “next oil economy,” arguing that future global power will revolve around data control, digital infrastructure and secure technology ecosystems. He said India can no longer view the data economy merely as a technological transition but as a strategic national opportunity that will influence investments, employment, energy systems and geopolitical competitiveness for decades.
The hiring surge will be driven by AI, cloud computing, 6G, semiconductors and digital public infrastructure, with demand expected to be sharpest for engineers skilled in AI infrastructure design, hyperscale data centre operations, cooling systems, smart-grid integration, renewable energy and cybersecurity. Future-proofing the sector, Singh added, will depend on building resilient supply chains for chips, servers, power systems and cooling equipment, as well as integrating solar, wind, green hydrogen and smart-grid solutions.
The projection comes at a time when global hyperscalers are committing record investments to Indian data centre capacity. Reliance, Amazon and Adani have each announced major data centre builds across the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, Hyderabad and Chennai over the past 18 months, with Amazon alone pledging ₹71,795 crore towards data centres in MMR that are projected to generate around 83,100 jobs.
