The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on 18th November 2022, released its recommendation on Regulatory Framework for Promoting Data Economy through Establishment of Data Centres, Content Delivery Networks, and Interconnect Exchanges in India.
The Authority has recommended to bring out data centre incentivization scheme (DCIS) for establishing data centres and data centre parks. DCIS to have two list of incentives:
- Certain centre specific and non-fiscal incentives and can be rolled out by the central government
- The other in form of a guidelines to the states, leaving flexibility to states to announce fiscal incentives through their policies. For incorporating in DCIS guidelines for States, the Authority also recommends inclusion of DCs in the list of exemptions from inspections under provisions of the Factories Act, 1948, Shops and Commercial Establishment Acts, other labor laws, and laws on wages.
Further, the Authority recommends that a national level DCRI (Data Center Readiness Index) framework be implemented by Central Government to rank Indian states as per their policy and regulatory environment to promote the DC sector. The Data Centre Industry Council (DCIC) proposed to be formed under MeitY’s draft DC policy, should be entrusted with the work of finalizing the parameters, their weightages, and methodology for giving marks against each parameter.
