Data Ops: After Yotta, UP to get 7 More Centres Under Amended Data Policy

The Uttar Pradesh Cabinet has approved amendments to the Data Centre 2021 policy to facilitate the opening of more data centres in the state.

At the recent inaugural ceremony of UP’s first and India’s second data centre in Greater Noida, CM Yogi Adityanath stated that he sees the state as the hub of data centres in the future.

He also said that in terms of the IT sector, many investors from all around the world are considering investing in the state.

During the event, while talking about the Yotta Data centre, Adityanath said: “We can see that the state government announced a data centre policy last year that called for the construction of 250-megawatt data centres in UP with an investment of Rs 20,000 crore over the next six years.”

“We are able to accomplish the goal very soon,” he added.

He also explained that when the state government introduced the policy, India’s total data centre capacity was 400-megawatt. “But in the first year of this policy, it has achieved Rs 20,000 crore worth of investments and as of now we have received proposals of 600-megawatt data centres,” he added.

Now, the Yogi government has released a statement highlighting the decision to set up seven more centres in the state. The proposal to amend the policy received Cabinet approval on November 3.

This will allow the UP government to open data centres in districts other than Noida and Greater Noida.

According to the release, the government has clearly instructed departments to make the necessary changes to their policies ahead of the Global Investors Summit which will take place in the mid of February 2023, so that they are not only better than other states, but also more investor-friendly.

Arvind Kumar, Additional Chief Secretary (IT and Electronics), informed that some significant changes have been made to the data centre policy in light of the trillion-dollar economy goal.

As per the release, it was also stated that in terms of data centre capacity, there have been proposals to increase it to 636-megawatt and in this case, the government has decided to raise the target capacity of data centres to 900-megawatt.

“Apart from this, a policy has been prepared for small data centres, so they can be opened in other districts. Even if those data centres are not of Noida scale, they will be approved,” the release added.

The government has also provided facilities for partial completion and increasing electricity connections.

Regarding the electricity requirement for these centres, Adityanath in his speech during the Yotta event stated that “to fulfil the energy need, we have made changes in our policy” and it will also help the investors interested in this sector in UP.

Additionally, he said that along with the Hiranandani Group, which is an arm of Yotta Infrastructure, several companies, including a Japanese company, have proposed to invest in UP’s IT sector under this policy.

“We have started giving importance to these proposals for the state,” stated Adityanath.

Further Approvals

The cabinet has approved revisions to the Start-up Policy. It was said that five new centres of excellence will be established in the state, three of which have already opened.

These centres of excellence will be established in new areas such as quantum computing, 3D printing, 5G, virtual reality, and space technology, among others.

The government will also contribute up to Rs 10 crore for this purpose.

As per the release, the sustainability allowance has been increased from Rs 15,000 to 17,500 and a grant of Rs 5 lakh will also be available for making prototypes.

Additionally, the cabinet has also passed IT-related resolutions.

Three of these investment proposals were approved in the IT Policy 2017. Microsoft is one of them, MQ is another, and Paytm is the third.

As mentioned in the release, these three firms will make investments in Noida.

Microsoft will put in Rs 2,186 crore, MACQ will put in Rs 483 crore, and Paytm will put in Rs 638 crore. Their construction work has already begun.

The latest release also stated that STP, based in Singapore, will invest Rs 1,130 crore in the establishment of a data centre in Noida, while SKBR will invest Rs 2,692 crore.

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