Centre keen on certification for data centres despite industry qualms

The government is likely to go ahead with plans to frame data centre certification guidelines, officials told ET. This is despite the industry questioning the need for India-specific data centre standards and certification.

There is broad consensus across the government departments and agencies that a national framework for land use, security measures, and power utilisation of data centres is necessary, multiple officials said. While the draft data centre certification scheme has been proposed by the ministry of electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), officials indicated the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), Telecommunication Engineering Council (TEC) and other central agencies are also involved in the plans to establish common certification for the expanding sector. Developed by MeitY's Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, the proposed certification framework seeks to establish standards for data centre operations and maintenance across the country.

"Back in 2022, Trai had recommended national level norms for building, standards, and security certification framework for data centres. It had asked the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) to develop the building standards for construction of DCs, while TEC and the STQC directorate were tasked with jointly developing the security certification framework based on third party audits. Considering the growing importance and critical nature of the industry, all these agencies are now coming together," an official said.


The recommendations had included the ministry of power creating an energy framework for the power guzzling industry.