What NITI Aayog wants MeitY to do under its new data centre evaluation framework

Access the NITI Aayog’s data centre framework here.

On October 14, 2026, NITI Aayog’s Frontier Tech Hub released a Data Centre Evaluation Framework which asks the Centre to “establish centralised Audit mechanism [with Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), as the nodal ministry] to periodically audit/inspect the claims of the data centres establishments”.

It also asks each state to publish a “State-wise Data Centre Approval Matrix“. This state-wise matrix is meant to list every clearance a project needs, who needs to issue it and how long it would take. The Data Centre Evaluation Framework describes itself as a guidance document which is

“intended to support decision-making, not prescribe a uniform approach or create an additional layer of regulation”.

To be noted: While MeitY has been named the nodal ministry, MediaNama reported the ministry saying:

“Officially, no data is maintained in MeitY regarding the capacity of Data Centres”.

In fact, even the framework’s own disclaimer says, “the data used is from secondary sources”.

Governance requirements for states: Pillar 5 of the document named “Policy, Governance and Implementation”, summarises itself as: “Assign conditions to responsible entities and track delivery”. For states this would mean:

1. An approval matrix: The framework requires the states to “publish a State-wise Data Centre Approval Matrix covering each applicable approval or NOC, issuing authority, applicability, indicative processing time, dependencies, required documents, applicable fees and escalation mechanism”.
2. One portal: It requires the states to merge the matrix “to one digital interface for coordinated submission, processing and tracking of clearances”, and names an escalation officer for each department, “including the authorities responsible for surface water, groundwater, municipal supply and treated wastewater”.
3. A nodal agency: It also says that “each State may designate a single point approving authority/agency/nodal agency (including MeitY) to coordinate the data centre establishment approvals in the State”.
4. Incentives with citations: The framework requires “for each incentive, cite the enabling notification, validity, responsible department and disbursement mechanism. Track status on the dashboard”.
5. Named responsibility: Condition 14 of the framework asks states to “map the facility and IT owner, workload controller, customer counterparty, Data Fiduciary or Processor, regulated entity, compute controller and incentive recipient”. Data Fiduciary and Data Processor are the terms that the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 uses for the entities that decide why personal data is processed and the ones that process it on their behalf, respectively.
6. Efficiency measured twice: It also asks to “assess design-stage PUE, WUE and CUE against applicable published BIS standards and require post-commissioning measurement and reporting using the same boundaries”. The ratios used by the industry for comparing a facility’s total electricity, water and emissions against what its computing equipment alone consumes, are power, water and carbon usage effectiveness.

The Centre’s responsibility per the framework: The same pillar mentioned above also has three lines on requirements for the Centre:

• Maintain the national legal-responsibility matrix and compliance templates”
• “Provide a model State notification or Central advisory for ESMA or equivalent continuity treatment. Cover 24×7 operations, priority utilities, emergency access”
• the audit, which is to “oversee if the data centre is functioning as per the Government of India rules / regulations / guideline”.

Some other duties for the Centre are added by other pillars such as:

• Requiring the Ministry of Power and the Central Electricity Regulatory Commission to “develop and publish model green-tariff, banking and open-access principles for round-the-clock renewable and storage-backed supply, for adoption by SERCs”;
• Requiring the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) and MeitY to “standardise PUE, WUE and CUE measurement boundaries, reporting and verification”;
• For the BEE to also “assess a Designated Consumer pathway for eligible data centres” (this is the category that the Energy Conservation Act, 2001 uses for large energy users that must report consumption and meet efficiency norms);
• And, for the Centre to also “publish Net Economic Contribution and performance-linked incentive templates”.

Comparing with MeitY’s draft National Data Centre Policy of November 2020: Some of the ideas were proposed earlier in 2020 – such as a single-window, time-bound clearance, at least four Data Centre Economic Zones and declaration of data centres as an essential service under the Essential Services Maintenance Act, 1968 – and have been carried through, while the ones below are new.

• conducting a central audit of operators’ claims, with MeitY as nodal ministry;
• requiring a published approval matrix with processing times and escalation officers;
• having a “national legal-responsibility matrix” that maps who answers for each condition, down to the data fiduciary;
• having incentives disbursed against “commissioning, renewable supply, PUE or WUE, employment, procurement and capability milestones”, each with a “suspension trigger”;
• labelling “Red zone” exclusion areas marked out “because of hazard exposure, water stress, land-use conflicts or inadequate supporting infrastructure”;
• and conducting a “Community Impact Assessment” before construction, “with consultation and grievance processes”.

At the launch, NITI Aayog member Abhay Karandikar had added that states must also ask who benefits from a project and would need “quantitative evaluation metrics” to apply the framework, ThePrint reported.

The current status of different States: The framework itself does not mention any state policies while several exist and some were also rewritten this year.

1. Uttar Pradesh: A Data Centre Policy 2026 was cleared by the cabinet in July which replaced the 2021 policy.
2. Gujarat: On July 9, 2026, the Viksit Gujarat Data Centre Policy 2026-29 had been launched as the state’s first dedicated policy.
3. Karnataka: In September 2026, the Sustainable Data Centre Policy 2026-31 for Karnataka was introduced.

This new NITI Aayog framework marks a shift from “competition for investment announcements towards competition based on investment readiness, infrastructure quality and sustainable economic value”. There seems to be a separate dedicated data centre policy which the government is working on but its draft and timeline are not public yet, the Indian Express reported.

Also read:

• MeitY maintains no official data centre records; Parliament panel asks MEA to seek verified data
• Govt cites nuclear power law, BIS standards to address AI data centre strains