A new article on Countercurrents contrasts the UN's push for transparency on AI data centre emissions with India's drive to build domestic compute capacity. The UN Secretary General has called for full disclosure of carbon, water, and land footprints, while a UN University report warns that AI water use could match 1.3 billion people by 2030. India's Ministry of Electronics and IT sees data centres as key to digital sovereignty and self-reliance. The government plans to subsidise GPU access for startups and factor high energy demand into national power planning, including a shift to 50% non-fossil capacity. The piece highlights a tension between global environmental regulation and national development goals.
