India's rapid push to become a global AI and data-centre hub is creating significant social and environmental costs that are being borne disproportionately by vulnerable communities, particularly Dalits. As companies such as Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta and others invest billions of dollars in new data centres, governments are offering incentives including land concessions, electricity subsidies and tax benefits. However, the expansion is often occurring without adequate consideration of the cumulative impacts on local communities, water resources, land use and public health.

There are cases where Dalit communities have allegedly been displaced or pressured to give up land for data-centre developments. In Mumbai, residents of a predominantly Dalit settlement were evicted in 2024 in an area where the Hiranandani Group is reportedly expanding its data-centres.

Google plans to build a large data-centre campus near Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. Part of the land needed for the project belongs to Dalit families, many of whom received it through government land-allocation programmes. Some residents say they are being pressured to sell their land and that Dalit landowners are being affected more than others. Community leaders fear losing land that provides an important source of income and security for a historically marginalized community.

The Business and Human Rights Center invited Meta, Google, Amazon.com, OpenAI, Tata Group, Adani Group, Microsoft and Hiranandani Group to respond. Hiranandani Group, Meta and Amazon.com responded while the others did not.