India, Sept. 28 -- With Maharashtra declaring drought in 265 of its 358 talukas, Congress leader Pawan Khera has questioned the state government's plans to rapidly expand the data-centre industry, asking how it would ensure that water meant for farmers and ordinary citizens was not diverted to the sector. The state government, however, said data centres would not be permitted to use regular water and would have to depend on treated sewage or desalinated water.

Data centres are massive warehouse-sized buildings that host powerful computer systems used to train AI models. Globally, there is growing pushback against the centres due to their immense consumption of water and electricity.

Khera, chairman of the Congress media and publicity de...