Guarding the cloud: India’s Al sovereignty shift

Sovereign cloud is powering India’s push for secure, local Al—balancing innovation, compliance, and control in a digitally sovereign future.

- BY SWASTIK CHAKRABORTY

AI and GenAl have transformed the way individuals live, work, and consume entertainment. With widespread adoption across industries such as healthcare, BFSI, manufacturing, media and entertainment, automobile, energy, and utilities, discussions around the security and sovereignty of data—on which the efficacy of Al solutions depends—have become increasingly pertinent. In response to concerns related to the secure and compliant use of Al in India, there is a growing shift toward developing a sovereign cloud infrastructure.

This infrastructure ensures that Al applications are safely deployed within the country’s boundaries, thereby reinforcing the case for accelerated data localisation. Industry figures also underscore this trend, with revenue for sovereign cloud solutions in India projected to rise from USD 9.83 billion in 2025 to USD 102.70 billion by 2034, reflecting a CAGR of 29.8% over this period.

No wonder, experts believe that sovereign cloud is fast becoming a critical enabler for secure and compliant Al adoption in the country.

UNDERSTANDING SOVEREIGN CLOUD IN CONTEXT

A sovereign cloud is a computing environment specifically designed to ensure that all data—including applications, stored information, and data in transit—is hosted, processed, and governed entirely within a particular country or region. This approach fully complies with the region's data sovereignty laws and regulatory requirements.