Modi wants India to power the AI age. Residents are pushing back
- Protests against an Amazon facility near Mumbai escalated on Friday, highlighting resistance to the tech giant's $21 billion investment in Indian AI infrastructure by 2030.
- Prime Minister Narendra Modi aims to host 'the whole world's data' across India, yet residents fear facilities will strain local power and water supplies despite government claims they are 'the invisible engines powering India's digital life.'
- Research firm Mordor Intelligence projects data center water usage will more than double by 2030; hundreds gathered on September 8 with placards reading 'Data centres are energy vampires.'
- Amazon defends the project, citing water-free cooling and dedicated power sources, while opposition legislator Aaditya Thackeray joined protesters in September demanding relocation.
- Similar tensions extend beyond Mumbai, with environmentalists opposing Google's $15 billion data center project in Andhra Pradesh and industry executive Sharad Agarwal stating he would 'never set up a data centre in a residential area.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Modi wants India to power the AI age. Residents are pushing back, Asia News
MUMBAI — The view from Indian engineer Tushar Shetty's Mumbai apartment captures a tension playing out around the world as the artificial intelligence boom fuels an unprecedented data-centre building spree.What was once a stretch of lush greenery outside his 21st-floor window is now a scar of red earth where trees were felled to make way for an Amazon facility that...
Population has rebelled against the proliferation of data centers for artificial intelligence, denouncing noises, increasing electricity consumption, water stress and industrialization of residential neighborhoods
India cannot compete with the leading AI models developed in the US and China, so the country is taking a different approach, betting on the idea that a dominant position in the physical infrastructure on which it will be built could prove just as valuable. This strategy is at the heart of Modi's investment campaign at a time when [...]
Amazon's planned data center in India has sparked an uproar in the neighborhood. The massive facility, located right next to residential buildings, is planned to include 193 backup diesel generators and 422 megawatts of electrical capacity. Initially expecting job opportunities, residents now want the project relocated.
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