India, Nov. 5 -- Mass protests by farmers and fishermen against a proposed AI-based data centre near the Ujani dam in Solapur have forced the consortium developing the project to drop two components - a green hydrogen plant and a Small Modular Reactor (SMR) nuclear reactor.

This follows protests from the farming and fishing communities, who said the project would create water shortages and compromise irrigation as well as fishing activities in the reservoir.

The Ujani data centre, in Madha taluka, is a public-private partnership (PPP) project between the state Water Resources Department, and JW Global and The SEED Consortium Partners. The original MoU was signed in April and a revised MoU will now be signed, covering only the AI data ce...