Can data centres fuel the new Indian IT boom?

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According to leading management consultancy firm Deloitte, India is slated to corner a big chunk of the data centre growth and expansion happening in the APAC region, which is expected to garner an investment of $800 billion by 2030.Viewed against the challenges faced by the Indian IT sector on account of  emergent AI technologies threatening to wipe out traditional avenues of revenue generation, shifting focus to becoming a data centre power house might yet resuscitate the once mighty Indian technology sector, which has suddenly started looking very fragile indeed.

​India ostensibly has everything that is required to help it make one of the leading data centre hubs in the world. From low infrastructure and manpower costs to active government support, it apparently has things neatly lined up to help it do just that. But given the existing power situation in the country and the excessive reliance on coal-generated electricity, there are many challenges to be overcome in order to get there. These include straining the water resources available in the country, which are already under intense pressure to cater to the needs of nearly a billion and a half people. Land acquisition and the creation of a suitably skilled workforce are other major challenges that need to be addressed.

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Data Centres- The Only Path Ahead for the Indian IT Sector?

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The IT sector is one of the few success stories that the country has seen with regard to providing a well paying career path to millions of Indian youth this century. Apart from the technically qualified who take up jobs in this sector, there is an even larger number of people who find indirect employment working as security staff, drivers, real estate managers and canteen personnel.

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The impending wind-down of the IT sector puts millions of livelihoods at stake, which makes it imperative that the opportunity afforded by the likely emergence of data centres as a major growth area acts as a godsend. Worldwide, the massive growth of cutting edge technologies like AI, 5G, cloud computing, and the IoT has led to an enormous surge in the demand for data storage, thereby making data centres a vitally critical component of the upcoming and emerging technology eco-systems. Besides, data centres are also required to help manage the data as well as processing needs of the high-growth sectors like finance, e-commerce, healthcare, gaming and a host of other industries that rely on dependable digital support in the shape of world class data centres.

​In lieu of this, India is seeking to vastly enhance its data centre capacity in 2026 and the subsequent years leading up to 2030, by which time a large number of big data centre hubs would have become operational. It is heartening to note that an investment commitment of more than a  $100 billion dollars is expected to be achieved by 2027. As a matter of fact, it is raining investments in India, when it comes to major Indian and international business groups' interest in helping grow thedata centre sector. From the home grown Adani group looking at investing $100 billion towards developing hyperscale AI-ready data centres over the next decade to US technology behemoths like Amazon, Google, Microsoft and others deciding to invest as much as 67.5 billon in the Indian data centre space, there does seem to be a momentum towards building data centres up as the next big thing to happen to the Indian IT space.

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Can focusing on data centres move India down the IT value chain?

For all those tom tomming the impending rise of India as a major global data centre hub, there is a contrary school of thought which fears that this could possibly move the Indian industry down the IT value chain. It suggests that rather than be known for low end server farms, India should stride ahead with a focus on creating world class SaaS products, designing chips and building cutting edge new age AI models.

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Conclusion

Despite the misgivings of a few, the overriding consensus is that data centre growth augurs well for the Indian IT industry as it helps lay the foundation for the accelerated growth and adoption of AI and Cloud technologies across the world. Global management consultancy firm KPMG believes India is witnessing a data centre revolution that is helping achieve the trillion dollar digital economy dream of the country.

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They hold that it makes eminent sense for a nation that boasts the largest and  most data intensive mobile user numbers in the world to work on expanding data centre capacity expansion on an unprecedented scale. Besides, the rapid and massive growth and adoption of AI have necessitated that data centre growth in the country be encouraged in every possible manner. Doing so also helps protect data sovereignty, something to which the government is fully committed.

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That India is well on its way to becoming a major global data centre hub is borne out by S&P Global Commodity Insights estimates which expect  the nation to likely become the second largest consumer of data centre electricity in the Asia Pacific region over the next two years, exceeding such demand by Singapore and Australia. 

Clearly, the data centre story has just begun in India.

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Whither AI?

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AI is going to have,  without the shadow of  the slightest doubt, the most profound impact on human destiny since the time that people first learned to harness fire and invent the wheel. The fact that AI is on the cusp of thinking and making decisions entirely on its own without any human supervision or direction means that the future of human life on Earth will unfold in ways that we cannot even begin to fathom.

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The blurring of distinction between breathing and thinking living beings that humans are and machines devoid of life and emotion by allowing the latter to exercise judgment on behalf of the former poses a philosophical dilemma that has never confronted humanity before. We don’t know how AI thought, developing independently of human impulses, will evolve. What impact will it have on art, culture, morality and indeed human morality?

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The immediate fear that most people have on account of the dawn of the age of AI is of a loss of employment, particularly the white-collar kind. From coders and writers to doctors, teachers and researchers, everyone fears redundancy when pitted  against super efficient, remorseless thinking machines capable of easily outperforming them.

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The fear of new technology is one that humans have dealt with since the earliest times. Every new discovery and innovation has caused trepidation, nervousness, and fear amongst those who worried that the new way of doing things would impact the old one they were used to. Everything from the invention of the wheel and the harnessing of energy to mechanised transport and flying was met with fear and resistance. The fact that it all worked out well eventually often hides the immense fear, heartbreak and indeed the destruction of a certain way of life it accompanies. But in the eventual yardstick of what is seen as human progress, the emergence and adoption of new technology seems to have done more good than harm to human existence.

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Where AI promises to be different is in the fact that it may take away the decision making power of human beings by moving away from under their authority and developing agency of its own. To that extent, its further evolution and its impact on human destiny is as unknown as it would be if the aliens took over planet Earth one day. Where is AI taking us?

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Is Zero-Waste Living Possible?

 

                                                  Photo by Tom Fisk: https://www.pexels.com/photo/bird-s-eye-view-of-landfill-317434

The consumption-heavy growth-at-all cost model that humans have been following for a few centuries now has made matters come to a head with the planet drowning in its own waste. We have defiled the very air we breathe and the water we need for sustenance. Land has been contaminated with poison in the shape of pesticides and disfigured and utterly damaged by mining, construction and the cutting of forests. This has resulted in what we know as the global climate crisis with its attendant problems in the shape of more frequent flooding, heat waves of increasing intensity, unprecedentedly large forest fires and the outbreak of disease and as we recently witnessed, a global pandemic.

One of the major problems associated with environmental degradation and pollution is the appallingly high level of waste generated on account of the way we mass-produce and consume goods, regardless of whether we need them or not. This might make economic growth figures look good, but the mountains of waste which we are unable to dispose of in an environmentally friendly manner that result on account of this, take our planet inexorably towards its doom.

For instance, electricity, which is the engine of the modern way of life, is generated largely by burning fossil fuels or by building environmentally damaging dams that help produce hydro power. Nuclear energy, for its part, comes with the risk of radioactive contamination. In fact, most modern industrial and business activity adds to the problem of waste creation not just on Earth but in space as well, which is increasingly getting clogged with innumerable communication satellites.

There is waste everywhere-in our seas and oceans, deserts and mountains, as well as our cities, towns, villages and islands. We are literally drowning in waste, but are not aware of it, as it hasn’t reached over our heads yet, at least figuratively. This situation, as one might imagine, is simply not tenable, and we need to do something about it right away. Something like living the zero-waste life. Quite radical, you would say-but is zero- waste living even possible?

The Zero Waste Living Approach

Zero waste living may not be something which is practically possible, as the very process of living creates waste in some form of the other, but the zero-waste living approach is something that can help the human race save themselves and the planet they live in from impending ruination. As a matter of fact, the zero-waste approach has become a worldwide movement that has helped more and more people understand what is at stake in this epic battle against waste that threatens the future of all life on earth. They have come to understand that they can adopt a zero-waste centred lifestyle by making mindful and intentional choices that help substantially reduce, if not eliminate, waste from most, if not all, aspects of life.

Here’s how you can approach a zero-waste approach to your life and help save your world as part of a global movement geared towards getting rid of most waste.

Learn to say no

The bane of modern living is that we have far more than we need. Instead of having to hunt for food or forage for it on the forest floor as our ancestors did, we just need to walk to the refrigerator and choose from a bewildering assortment of packaged food that is terrible for our health. Say no to that and try to source fresh food that you can yourself proceed to cook- far healthier and produces less waste too.  Say no, also, to the abomination that is quick or fast fashion and take to wearing durable clothing that lasts for a long time. There are so many other things you can say no to. Like not driving in your car to your place of work and using public transport or riding a cycle instead. If you make a list of things you could say no to, you will discover that it is a very long one indeed.

Consume less

We could all consume a lot less than we do and reduce the awful burden we place on our planet by way of the extraction of scarce resources. It is not for nothing that gluttony and lust were counted amongst the deadliest of sins. Our forebears were on to something elemental about ensuring human survival, which we have clearly lost sight of, given that people in positions of power and authority who should know better go on and on about increasing growth, never mind if that is a one way ticket to oblivion.

We consume too much food, buy more clothes than we need, travel more than we need to and consume way more energy than we need to. This amounts to living on debt and imagining that the bill will never come. Not only are the bills coming in thick and fast, but they are coming with heavy interest and penalties.

Reuse

The use and throw culture which is supposed to deliver convenience, but is really serving the needs of rapacious business houses threatens to thoroughly make the environment increasingly unconducive to all forms of life including our own. One of the best ways to fight this is by taking to reusing everything from clothes and electronic gadgets to water bottles and utensils. One should mend, stitch, darn and repair whatever we can and use it for the longest time.  It’s heartening in this regard that Gen Z finds shopping at thrift stores both fashionable and economical. That is the way to go, and the older folks would do well to take a leaf from their book.

Recycle

Recycling products that have outlived their utility is one of the best ways of tackling the problems of dealing with the gargantuan amounts of waste generated by human activity. Doing so has two benefits- that of dealing with waste in an environment-friendly manner and contributing to the economy by using waste as raw material for all-new products. Examples of recycling waste are numerous. These range from using waste water from homes for watering plants, refashioning plastic straws as footwear, storing spices, buttons, coins and nails in glass containers instead of plastic ones, composting kitchen waste and using it as fertilizer for plants, and using refill jars and bottles for shampoos, detergents and hand wash. Similarly, donating old clothes or repurposing them as bags and repairing old gadgets instead of outright replacing them is something that you can incorporate into your way of life.

Choosing the sustainable lifestyle

The zero waste approach to life is basically following a sustainable lifestyle. This is in stark contrast to the ultra-consumerist approach to life that has been heralded as normal over the centuries leading up to the planetary level disaster that stares us all in the face. Nature has its own cycle of growth, decay and renewal, and we are meant to adhere to its timeline. If we don’t, we ultimately risk our own annihilation, for as surely as the sun rises every day, nature will destroy us and replace us with something else. So, if we don’t want to go the way of the dinosaurs, we need to realign and reimagine the way we live, and zero-waste living is the way to do that.