New Delhi, Sept. 22 -- Amid conflicting reports on the long-term effects of data centres comes news that National Bank for Financing Infrastructure and Development (Nabfid) has sanctioned loans exceeding Rs.3,000 crore each to at least four data-centre projects in India. These credit facilities carry moratoriums of as much as five years, followed by repayment over the next 10 years.

To Nabfid, set up in 2021 for infra-funding, this sector offers an opportunity to deploy long-term finance in projects that require huge upfront investment but can generate recurring cash flows once operational.

This push comes as India seeks to expand its own compute capacity to support growing demand for cloud and AI services. The government has also sough...