India is rapidly advancing its cloud infrastructure to meet the soaring demand for digital services across government, industry, and citizen platforms. At the heart of this initiative is MeghRaj, the national cloud program launched under the Digital India programme, serving as a pivotal component for e-governance, data sovereignty, and AI-driven public services.
MeghRaj, officially known as the Government Infrastructure Cloud (GI Cloud), is engineered to offer elastic, on-demand cloud services tailored for central and state government departments. This platform facilitates quicker application deployment, a pay-per-use model, self-service provisioning, and scalable computing resources. Consequently, ministries can modernize their IT frameworks while retaining control over sensitive data.
As of now, over 2,170 government ministries and departments have migrated their applications to MeghRaj. The National Informatics Centre (NIC) operates as the government’s in-house cloud service provider, while also collaborating with private sector players through competitive bids to fulfill the increasing demand for capacity.
To enhance choices and resilience, the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) has empanelled 26 commercial cloud service providers to support central and state workloads. These providers have been certified by the Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate, adhering to global security standards such as ISO 27001, ISO 27017, ISO 27018, and ISO 20000. This ensures compliance with international protocols related to data protection, cloud security, and service management.
The focus on security remains paramount. Government cloud services are hosted within National Data Centres, employing a multi-layered security architecture, established operational practices, and stringent access controls aimed at safeguarding against cyber threats and data breaches. This approach is aligned with India’s broader initiative to create trusted digital public infrastructure while facilitating AI-enabled applications across governance, healthcare, education, and financial services.
As India’s cloud strategy unfolds, it aligns with a significant increase in domestic data centre capacity, driven by digitalization and the accelerating adoption of AI in both public and private sectors. Industry estimates suggest that India’s cloud data centre capacity has reached approximately 1,280 megawatts, supporting critical sectors like banking, power, and public infrastructure. Projections indicate that this capacity could expand four to five times by 2030, reflecting a growing demand for compute-intensive workloads.
Major global technology firms are already committing substantial investments to bolster India’s AI and data centre ecosystem. For instance, Google has unveiled plans for a $15 billion AI hub in Visakhapatnam, while Amazon Web Services is channeling $8.3 billion into establishing a data centre region in Maharashtra. These investments complement government initiatives such as MeghRaj and reinforce India’s emerging status as a strategic hub for cloud and AI infrastructure.
As AI adoption accelerates and the landscape of digital governance expands, MeghRaj is poised to serve a central role in delivering secure, scalable, and interoperable cloud services for the Indian government. This initiative is set to support a wide array of applications, from enhancing citizen services to facilitating next-generation AI solutions, all while ensuring sovereignty over public data.
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