2026 Essays

Governing AI Infrastructure: How India Can Steer the Boom Towards Sustainability and Security

Manve, Vishal

Across the European Union, protests against data centres have become a common sight. In Ireland, grid operators have frozen new connections. In the Netherlands, municipalities have restricted where facilities can be constructed. In Germany, lawmakers now mandate waste-heat reuse and renewable power for large facilities. The European Union, once content to let cloud infrastructure grow silently in the background, is imposing restrictive guidelines under its expanding AI governance framework—explicitly linking artificial intelligence to energy security, climate targets, and public scrutiny through policy programmes such as the AI Continent Action Plan and the “Apply AI” strategy.