How Ishan Technologies Positions Sovereign Cloud For AI Scale

At the India AI Summit in Delhi, conversations around artificial intelligence moved beyond models and use cases toward a more foundational question: infrastructure control.

Participation from Ishan Technologies, alongside its joint NVIDIA showcase of an AI Sovereign Stack, highlighted how enterprise AI readiness is increasingly tied to digital backbone decisions.

In an interaction with CiOL, Twisha Kotecha, Head – Strategic Innovations, Ishan Technologies, framed India’s AI trajectory through the lens of infrastructure ownership, secure connectivity, and sovereign cloud.

The discussion signals a broader shift: AI impact is moving from model access to infrastructure readiness.

Interview Excerpts:

India aspires to be a global AI powerhouse, but much of the foundational compute and cloud stack is still influenced by global hyperscalers. How strategically independent is India’s AI positioning without deeper domestic control over infrastructure?

India’s AI ambition is credible, but strategic independence depends on who controls the foundational layers of compute and cloud. Today, India generates close to 20 per cent of the world’s data, yet accounts for roughly 3 per cent of global data centre capacity. That imbalance highlights why domestic infrastructure scale matters.

The government’s IndiaAI Mission, including subsidised access to tens of thousands of GPUs and expansion of sovereign compute clusters, is a strong signal that capacity building has begun. However, hardware alone does not ensure independence. Control over orchestration, data governance, and compliance frameworks is equally important.

At Ishan Technologies, our focus on MeitY-certified sovereign cloud infrastructure is rooted in this reality. AI leadership is not only about building models. It is about ensuring that data, compute, and governance remain aligned with national jurisdiction and long-term strategic resilience.

Big Tech’s increasing investments in India signal confidence, but do they represent long-term ecosystem building or market expansion aligned to their own platform dominance strategies?

India is witnessing notable capital commitments toward AI and digital infrastructure. Industry reports indicate that the country’s data centre capacity has crossed approximately 1,100 MW of IT load and is expected to expand significantly over the next few years. Multi-billion-dollar announcements around AI compute and data infrastructure reflect strong global confidence in India’s digital growth trajectory.

At the same time, large-scale infrastructure investments anywhere in the world are naturally aligned with long-term platform strategy. The more important question for India is whether domestic capacity scales alongside global participation.

There is growing momentum in building sovereign and compliant cloud environments within the country. The launch of MeitY-certified cloud platforms such as Saksham Cloud and investments into AI-ready digital infrastructure signal that indigenous capability is strengthening. A resilient ecosystem will be one where enterprises benefit from global innovation while retaining access to locally governed infrastructure that ensures regulatory clarity and operational continuity.

With large capital commitments toward AI-ready networks, data centres, and cloud expansion, what are the real infrastructure bottlenecks today—compute density, power availability, last-mile connectivity, or policy friction?

AI readiness is often framed purely as a compute problem, but the challenge is broader. While national initiatives are expanding access to high-performance GPUs and industry players are accelerating data centre buildouts, structural constraints remain.

India’s data centre capacity, at just over 1,100 MW of IT load, is growing rapidly, yet AI workloads significantly increase power density and cooling requirements. Energy availability and sustainability planning, therefore, become strategic considerations.

Another critical factor is secure connectivity. AI workloads depend on reliable, low-latency movement of data between enterprise campuses, edge environments, and centralised compute clusters. Without strong fibre backbones and secure network architecture, AI adoption remains concentrated rather than distributed across industries.

Infrastructure players are increasingly focusing on integrating compliant cloud environments with secure network expansion to support AI at scale. The emphasis is shifting from isolated assets to cohesive digital backbones capable of supporting compute-intensive workloads.

What role should domestic ICT players play in India’s AI stack?

As India advances its IndiaAI agenda, domestic ICT players have a stabilising role to play within the national AI stack. India generates a significant share of global data, yet long-term resilience requires greater control over how that data is stored, processed, and governed.

The responsibility of domestic providers is not to replicate hyperscale models but to strengthen sovereign and compliant infrastructure layers. MeitY-aligned cloud platforms, AI-ready infrastructure investments, and secure network frameworks are steps in that direction.

Equally important is interoperability. Enterprises should be able to innovate using global technologies while ensuring that governance and compliance remain aligned with national policy objectives. Domestic ICT players, therefore, act as enablers of balance, combining innovation with security and strategic continuity.

AI Impact Hinges on Infrastructure

The interaction reflects a clear shift emerging from the summit: AI competitiveness is increasingly defined by infrastructure maturity. Sovereign cloud, secure connectivity, and orchestration layers are becoming strategic levers for enterprise adoption and government programmes alike.

The implication is practical: AI scale will depend less on model access and more on the strength of the domestic digital backbone. In that context, the conversation positions infrastructure not as a supporting layer but as the centre of India’s AI impact story.