Amazon Web Services (AWS) announced it plans to invest INR 1,05,600 crores (US $12.7 billion) into cloud infrastructure in India by 2030 to meet growing customer demand for cloud services in India. This investment is estimated to contribute INR 1,94,700 crores (US $23.3 billion) to India’s total gross domestic product (GDP) by 2030. This planned investment in data center infrastructure in India will support an estimated average of 1,31,700 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs in Indian businesses each year. These positions, including construction, facility maintenance, engineering, telecommunications, and other jobs, are part of the data center supply chain in India. This follows AWS’s investment of INR 30,900 crores (US $3.7 billion) between 2016-2022, which will bring AWS’s total investment in India to INR 1,36,500 crores (US $16.4 billion) by 2030. AWS’s investment in India has a ripple effect in the local economy in areas, such as workforce development, training and skilling opportunities, community engagement, and sustainability initiatives.
AWS has two data center infrastructure regions in India – the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region, launched in 2016, and the AWS Asia Pacific (Hyderabad) Region, launched in November 2022[1]. The two AWS Regions are designed to provide Indian customers with multiple options to run workloads with even greater resilience and availability, securely store data in India, and serve end users with low latency. AWS has invested more than INR 30,900 crores (US $3.7 billion) in the AWS Asia Pacific (Mumbai) Region between 2016 and 2022. This includes both capital and operating expenditures associated with constructing, maintaining, and operating the data centers in that Region. AWS estimates that its overall contribution to the GDP of India between 2016 and 2022 was more than INR 38,200 crores (US $4.6 billion), and the investment supported approximately 39,500 FTE jobs annually in Indian businesses.
“PM Narendra Modi ji’s Digital India vision is driving expansion of cloud & data centers in India,” said Rajeev Chandrashekhar, minister of state for electronics and information technology, skill development and entrepreneurship in India. “India Cloud and the underlying data center infrastructure are important elements of India’s digital infrastructure and ecosystem. I welcome the Amazon Web Services (AWS) investment of $12.7 billion to expand their data centers in India. It will certainly catalyze India’s digital economy. MeitY is also working on a Cloud & Data Center Policy to catalyze innovation, sustainability, and growth of India Cloud.”
“Since 2016, AWS has invested billions of dollars into cloud infrastructure in India to support the tremendous growth we have witnessed in the use of cloud for digital transformation,” said Puneet Chandok, president of commercial business, AWS India and South Asia (Amazon Web Services India Pvt. Ltd.). “AWS is committed to driving positive social and economic impact in India. In addition to building cloud infrastructure and helping local customers and partners digitally transform, we have trained more than four million people in India with cloud skills since 2017, and invested in six utility-scale renewable energy projects to meet our global 100% renewable energy goal by 2025. Our planned investment of INR 1,05,600 crores (US $12.7 billion) by 2030 will help create more beneficial ripple effects, supporting India on its path to becoming a global digital powerhouse.”
Hundreds of thousands of customers in India run their workloads on AWS to drive cost savings, accelerate innovation, and increase speed time to market. This includes government entities such as Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, public healthcare institutions like Aarogyasri Health Care Trust, large Indian enterprises such as Ashok Leyland, Axis Bank, HDFC Life and Titan, small and medium businesses like Havmor, Qube Cinema, and Narayana Nethralaya, well-known startups like BankBazaar, HirePro, M2P, and Yubi, and numerous other organisations in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. AWS also helps several Indian businesses build digital solutions locally that can be scaled globally through the AWS Partner Network (APN) where Indian partners can use programs, expertise, and resources to build, market, and sell customer offerings. The APN in India includes organisations, such as Minfy Technologies, Rapyder Cloud Solutions, and Redington.
“We welcome AWS’s investment into India as it helps us accelerate our digital transformation goals in the financial services market, and further contribute to India’s overall economic progress,” said Navanil Sengupta, Chief Marketing Officer, HDFC Securities. “HDFC Securities has been leveraging AWS’s capabilities over the past year to develop a next-generation Fintech platform for investing and trading across Indian Stocks, Mutual Funds and US Stocks, to meet our customers’ ever evolving needs. Thanks to AWS’s support in the digital ecosystem in India, we have seen tremendous progress in terms of digital skills, new jobs, and new digital opportunities for India. We look forward to our continued collaboration with AWS to raise the bar on digital innovation and provide Indian investors a differentiated approach towards investing.”
Upskilling India’s digital workforce
AWS’s infrastructure investment in India creates a positive ripple effect across the economy, including in digital skilling. Since 2017, AWS has trained more than four million people in India on cloud skills through programs such as AWS Skill Builder that offers digital cloud skills to anyone with an Internet connection, and AWS re/Start, a full-time, classroom-based skills development and training program that prepares individuals for careers in the cloud. AWS re/Start has connected over 98% of all program graduates in India with employment opportunities across organisations including Accenture, Capgemini, CloudKinetics, Cloudreach, Cognizant, Hays Group, Mphasis, and Unilever. In February 2023, AWS announced AWS re/Start Associate to help unemployed and underemployed IT professionals modernise their skills, and pivot to mid-level cloud careers, in collaboration with Generation India Foundation, a non-profit organisation. Programs like AWS Educate, self-paced digital training, and AWS Academy, cloud computing curriculum for higher education institutions, are also supporting training initiatives. These programs are being used by the Ministry of Education, All India Council for Technical Education, NITI Aayog, and state government organisations such as Andhra Pradesh State Skill Development Corporation, Tamil Nadu Skill Development Corporation, and Telangana Academy for Skill and Knowledge.
Driving community development programs in India
AWS is committed to making a positive difference in the communities where it builds and operates data centers. As part of this, AWS Think Big Spaces provide a place beyond the classroom for students in India to explore and cultivate an interest in science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics (STEAM) and related careers. AWS has supported the setup of 11 Think Big Spaces in Mumbai and seven in Hyderabad, with more planned over the next year. These Think Big Spaces benefit over 16,000 school students every year. AWS InCommunities has also planted over 10,000 trees and built green spaces around AWS Regions in Hyderabad and Mumbai, led the restoration of animal underpasses in Navi Mumbai, near the Karnala Bird Sanctuary, and is working on extensive infrastructure improvements in villages of Rangareddy district, helping renovate five schools, five pre-primary schools, and three hospitals.
Keeping sustainability at the core of AWS operations
Amazon is committed to becoming a more sustainable business and reaching net-zero carbon across its operations by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement, as part of The Climate Pledge. Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge and became its first signatory in 2019. Other signatories include CSM Technologies, GODI, Greenko Energy Holdings, HCL Technologies, Infosys, Mahindra Logistics, Tech Mahindra and UPL Ltd in India. Today, more than 400 organisations spanning 55 industries and 35 countries have signed the Pledge. As part of its Pledge commitment, Amazon is also on a path to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, five years ahead of the original 2030 target. Amazon is the world’s largest corporate purchaser of renewable energy, and in India, Amazon has invested in six utility-scale renewable energy projects, three solar and three wind-solar hybrids, with a combined renewable energy capacity of 920 megawatts. These renewable energy projects will supply energy for Amazon’s corporate offices, fulfillment centers, and data centers in India.
In December 2022, AWS announced it will be water positive (water+) by 2030, returning more water to communities than it uses in its direct operations. In India, AWS continues to support water replenishment projects with nonprofits Water.org and WaterAid, which have provided access to clean water to more than 250,000 Indian citizens in the states of Maharashtra, Telangana, and Andhra Pradesh since 2020. The WaterAid collaboration has resulted in nearly 650 million litres of water provided annually to communities and schools through 420 water point installations, 126 rainwater harvesting projects, and 120 groundwater recharge structures.
AWS customers in India can also meet their sustainability goals by migrating to AWS. According to 451 Research, Indian companies and public sector organisations that migrate computing workloads from on-premises data centers to cloud infrastructure can expect to reduce their energy use – and associated carbon footprint – by nearly 80%. AWS also helps customers improve their sustainability in the cloud through tools such as the Sustainability Pillar for Well-Architected and the customer carbon footprint tool, helping customers understand the environmental impacts of the services they use. AWS tools and solutions also help accelerate the pace of sustainability innovation by customers in India, such as in the energy sector with Greenko or Ion Energy.