Parliament Question: Energy and environmental sustainability compliance under IndiaAI Mission

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY RAJYA SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 866 TO BE ANSWERED ON: 06.02.2026 ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COMPLIANCE UNDER INDIAAI MISSION 866. DR. FAUZIA KHAN: Will the Minister of ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY be pleased to state: (a) whether Government has a comprehensive energy and environmental compliance framework mandated for Artificial Intelligence (AI) data centres under the IndiaAI Mission, given escalating power and water consumption projections; (b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons for lack of a framework; (c) the mechanisms to enforce mandatory renewable energy procurement for AI facilities and integrate computational emissions standards into environmental clearance processes, the details thereof; (d) whether there exists inter-ministerial coordination strategy with Power and Environment ministries to address grid capacity constraints and water stress from concentrated data centre clusters; and (e) if so, the details thereof? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE FOR ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI JITIN PRASADA) (a) to (e): The Government is cognizant of the accelerating usage and requirement of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and large-scale data centres across the country. It is also aware of the corresponding increase in energy infrastructure demand associated with this growth. The Government has adopted a holistic and sustainability-oriented approach for AI compute infrastructure under the IndiaAI Mission, covering energy efficiency, water stewardship and climate resilience. The IndiaAI Compute pillar promotes sustainability through a shared national AI compute infrastructure model, which avoids fragmented and duplicative capacity creation and enables optimal utilisation of high- performance compute resources. Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) benchmarks are incorporated as key technical conditions in the empanelment of AI compute and data centre service providers, encouraging deployment of energy-efficient hardware and advanced cooling technologies with lower resource intensity. As on date, 38,231 GPUs have been onboarded from 14 empaneled service providers under the IndiaAI Compute pillar. AI data centres are required to comply with existing Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE) frameworks, including the voluntary Star Rating Programme for Data Centres based on PUE and the Energy Conservation Building Code (ECBC) under the Energy Conservation Act, 2001. In addition, data centres must adhere to statutory water-related regulations, including permissions from State Pollution ControlBoards, norms on water abstraction, recycling, reuse and discharge, and compliance with local water-use regulations. Sustainability considerations are being advanced through institutional dialogue. The ‘Resilience, Innovation & Efficiency’ Working Group of the India AI Impact Summit has been set up to examine energy efficiency, water management, and environmental resilience in digital and AI infrastructure. *****