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Preliminary feedback on Draft Data Center Certification Scheme
Preliminary feedback on Draft Data Center Certification Scheme

July 12, 2025

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Recently nasscom has engaged with MEITY and Standardisation Testing and Quality Certification (STQC) Directorate regarding the Draft Data Center Certification Scheme, strongly advocating for a comprehensive stakeholder consultation. We believe a detailed dialogue is crucial to provide confidence and clarity for investments and operations, essential for India's ambition as a global data center (DC) hub.

Our preliminary feedback highlights several key concerns:

Unclear Rationale and Overlap: The scheme's objective is unclear, appearing as an additional requirement without clear benefits. Most leading Indian DCs and cloud service providers (CSPs) already adhere to globally accepted standards (e.g., ISO/IEC 27001, TIA-942/Uptime Institute), which comprehensively cover the Draft Scheme's objectives. Given the scheme itself mandates these global standards as prerequisites, its incremental value is questionable, especially with existing STQC audits for government-empanelled CSPs.

Misalignment with Global Practices: The Draft Scheme lacks alignment with international norms. Jurisdictions rarely introduce exclusive, comprehensive DC certification schemes beyond existing global standards, unless for specific local gaps (e.g., Japan's standard for earthquake risk). This Indian-specific framework risks creating a dual compliance burden for operators, hindering both domestic and global market participation.

Need for Tiered, Voluntary, and Context-Specific Approach: We recommended a tiered, risk-based assessment that identifies only incremental compliance for those already adhering to global and MEITY standards. Additional requirements should be context-specific, and the certification must be explicitly voluntary.

Avoiding a 'One-Size-Fits-All' Framework: The uniform approach for all DCs fails to recognise diverse business models like enterprise, co-location, and hyperscaler DCs. For instance, the Draft Scheme's focus on single-facility metrics does not align with modern distributed infrastructures.

We reiterated our request for MEITY and STQC to convene a stakeholder consultation, ensuring industry insights are heard for a robust and practical DC ecosystem.

For further information on the above subject, please write to sudipto@nasscom.in with a copy to policy@nasscom.in. 


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