As artificial intelligence drives a global surge in demand for computing infrastructure, India is positioning itself as a major destination for data centers — but the communities being displaced to make way for these facilities are seeing few of the promised benefits. Critics and activists are raising urgent questions about land acquisition, water consumption, and the absence of meaningful consultation with those most affected.

Osama Manzar, founder of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, a nonprofit working on digital inclusion in India, warns that data centers risk repeating the patterns of extractive industries. By 2030, India's data centers are projected to consume water equivalent to the annual domestic needs of 1.3 billion people and require electricity matching the energy demand of 650 million. In areas such as Visakhapatnam, in the southeastern state of Andhra Pradesh, communities have begun protesting Google's data center plans, while in Telangana — where Microsoft is building a data center hub — some of the land acquired for the project has been under dispute, with original owners questioning how they might reclaim it.