Misinformation being spread over Vizag data centres' water needs: Minister

Andhra Pradesh IT Minister Nara Lokesh on Wednesday defended the state government's decision to establish data centres in Visakhapatnam, and said deliberate misinformation was being spread over their environmental and water requirements.

Addressing the Assembly, the IT Minister said Google's decision to invest in Visakhapatnam had triggered wider interest from other IT companies in the city.

"Deliberate misinformation was being spread over their (data centres) environmental and water requirements," said Lokesh, replying to a question.

Lokesh said data centres are critical to the AI-driven digital economy and India's data sovereignty, particularly amid emerging geo-political challenges.

He explained that once the proposed data-centre ecosystem reaches the targeted 6.5 GW capacity, it is estimated to require around 3 TMC (thousand million cubic ft) of water annually based on current technology.

However, he stressed that newer cooling technologies are expected to reduce water consump