The Ministry of Investment of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India’s Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology (MEITy) to set out a framework for the expansion of bilateral investment cooperation in the digital infrastructure sector, with a special emphasis on data centre projects in India. India’s data center market, that has recently surpassed the 1GW mark, will now see developments that add as much as 2GW capacity in the initial phase, as part of the initiatives under this agreement.
The MoU was signed in the presence of His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and Indian Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in Abu Dhabi. The Indian PM is on an official visit to the Gulf nation, and several key agreements pertaining to business, manufacturing, trade and technology have been signed during this visit.
The MoU was signed by His Excellency Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Minister of Investment of the UAE, and His Excellency Dr. Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Minister of External Affairs of the Republic of India on behalf of the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology of the Republic of India.
An official press release by India’s Ministry of External Affairs about the joint statement made by the two leaders, said, “The leaders welcomed the MoU to jointly explore, assess and evaluate investment cooperation in the digital infrastructure sector. This MoU was signed by the Ministry of Investment of the UAE and the Ministry of Electronics & Information Technology of the Republic of India and focuses on creating strong and effective collaboration by building relationships between public and private organisations in the UAE and India. It aims to explore and evaluate the possibility of establishing a supercomputer cluster in India and data centre projects in India.”
His Excellency Mohamed Hassan Alsuwaidi, Minister of Investment of the UAE, said, “This memorandum, built on the strong historical relationship between our two countries, is reinforced by a shared vision to leverage technology for driving innovation, economic growth and societal development. It will provide India with a scalable solution to meet its growing demands through investment facilitation, ensuring that businesses and industries can adapt more effectively to the needs of the future.”
An official statement by UAE’s Ministry of Investment said, “Through the memorandum, both countries will jointly explore, assess and evaluate the technical and investment potential of developing data centre projects in India with an initial capacity of up to 2 gigawatts. The memorandum will also promote and facilitate investments in Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI), Artificial Intelligence (AI) and aspects related to R&D and Innovation. Furthermore, to support the deployment of a supercomputer cluster in India, both countries will assess the technical and investment potential of developing AI compute capacity of 8 exaflops for use by government, public, private sectors and academia.”
It went on to say, “The UAE was the fourth largest investor in India in 2023 and the seventh largest source of Foreign Direct Investment overall. Meanwhile, India currently holds a position among the top 15 countries globally regarding data centre capacity, boasting a network of 151 data centres spread across its different regions. The country’s internet economy is expected to reach USD 1 trillion by 2030, a significant surge from USD 175 billion in 2022.”
India’s push for greater digitisation via its Digital India initiative, has not only led to government services becoming available to people digitally, but has also led to an exponential increase in digital transactions in a country of 1.4 billion people. The increased data consumption requires enhanced digital infrastructure and a resilient data centre ecosystem. Further there are data localisation policies mandating the domestic storage of local data.
The Memorandum of Understanding follows the signing of several strategic agreements between the Ministry of Investment of the UAE and respective Ministries in India in January 2024 in sectors including renewable energy, food processing and healthcare.
*Feature image courtesy official Twitter Account of India’s Ministry of External Affairs.