Nara Lokesh and his deceiving claims on Data Centers

On 19th August 2026, MLA Lokam Naga Madhavi raised five questions on Data Centers being set up in Vizag:

1. How much water is needed? What are the sources? How does it compare to current water usage for drinking and agriculture? How much water is available? Has the government done a proper study?
2. How much extra power is needed? How much transmission network and substations are needed? Can this additional demand be borne by the grid?
3. Did the AP govt mandate efficiency metrics such as power and water usage efficiencies (PUE, WUE) recycled water usage, renewable energy utilisation, etc?
4. Has the government considered impact from Backup DGs, construction activity, associated infra, air pollution, noise, carbon, and particulate emissions? Is the govt doing project wise Environment Impact Assessment?
5. For project affected families, there is no policy mention on jobs. Why isn’t it mandated in the policy?

Nara Lokesh has not answered any of these questions factually. He continued to mislead the public

On Water

“3000 TMC of Godavari water is wasted every year”

• Rivers joining the sea is how the hydrological cycle works. Calling this ‘wasted water’ shows his ignorance of the hydrological ecosystem
• The Polavaram project was built on the sacrifice of lakhs of tribal families. It was not meant for Data Centers. It was intended to irrigate lakhs of acres of farmlad and supply water to cities and villages
• If we divert this to Data Centers, someone is going to lose water that they were promised
• Due to El Niño, Godavari is seeing lowest inflows in 70 years. Even during a shortage like this, the govt. has promised to suppy water 24/7 to Data Centers
• Until recently, Lokesh was going around claiming we only need 1 TMC for 6.5 GW. Now it is 3 TMC! How can water requirements triple AFTER projects are approved?
• The EC documents only declare 300 KLD of water usage per DC. This is like 15 water tankers. Is this a joke?

Disclose the cooling tech. Publish detailed water requirements and supply sources

On Environment

“We are following all due processes and people are misguided on issues of data centers”

• Lokesh cites an example from a Data Center in Stanford saying he did not hear any noise. He didn't because the largest data center in Stanford is only 6 MW! The data centers he is welcoming here are a thousand times larger
• What environmental regulations allow a State to approve a 512 MW Data Center right on the catchment of a drinking water reservoir, next to a wildlife sanctuary and pass it off as a mere ‘building project’?
• What are the ‘advanced technologies’ the minister is claiming will be used in Vizag to address environmental concerns? Can he please elaborate?
• Environmentalists have always opposed thermal plants in favour of cleaner energy sources. But he claims “no one opposes thermal plants”

Why was an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) not conducted? Why are the projects misclassified?

On “Ecosystems”

“Data Centers create an indirect ecosystem”

• Since the primary Data Center investments are no way justifiable either in terms of job creation or revenue to the State, the govt is pushing the ‘indirect ecosystem’ justification
• Creation of minimal indirect jobs does not in any way justify the destruction that the Hyperscale Data Centers entail
• The Govt is pushing for Solar, Pumped Storage Projects (PSPs) and Nuclear energy. Some of these projects are in the bio-rich hills of the Eastern Ghats Agency. They involve huge displacement and livelihood loss
• The govt ran a massive PR campaign claiming 1.88 lakh jobs for 1 GW DC. Now with 6.5 GW capacity, do we get 12 lakh jobs?

Drop the hype. Give us the real permanent employment numbers that this Data Center Ecosystem will create

On Sovereignty

“We should have AI Data Centres in the country for data sovereignty”

• Big Tech AI Data Centers being on our soil does not give us any ‘sovereignty’ on the data or compute
• Lokesh himself lobbied for allowing 100% Foreign Direct Investment in Data Centers. It is Big Tech that is going to have control, not people or the government
• Has the government demanded a share of compute capacity or ownership in any of the Data Centers for its generous contribution of around 50,000 crore rupees in various incentives and subsidies? Nope.
• Then where is the sovereignty argument coming from? If having AI Data Centers in our country brings us ‘sovereignty’, why are so many nations in the “West” rejecting them? Do they not want sovereignty?
• AI Data Centers do not store data like traditional Data Centers. They are for training and running AI models

Disclose the agreements that give us ‘Sovereignty’

On AI and Advancements

“The smartphones we are using have AI and we need data centers for that”

• AI can be assistive, perform research to solve humanity’s problems and aid in meaningful progress. But Big Tech’s priorities are profiteering through military tech, surveillance, advertising and workforce replacement
• When technological advancements come with massive costs to the people, the right thing to do is to explore alternatives, encourage research and take a sustainable and responsible path to progress
• Technology can be decentralised, localised, federated, responsible and public-controlled but that will not bring in the profit and control that is central to Big Tech
• Big Tech’s model of controlled, centralised and extractive technology is to fuel their race to world domination through AI. Why should we bear the costs?