Maharashtra is positioning itself to become India’s artificial intelligence (AI) capital, building on its existing status as the country’s data center and fintech hub, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said at Nasscom 2025.
The state, which currently hosts 60 per cent of India’s data center capacity in and around Navi Mumbai, recently secured AI and data center investments worth $20 billion at Davos. “We have created a new data center park around Navi Mumbai. And a lot of investments around data center are coming,” Fadnavis said during a fireside chat with Srikanth Velamakanni, cofounder and group CEO of Fractal.
To support the growing data center infrastructure, Maharashtra plans to increase its power generation capacity from the current 45 gigawatts to 75 gigawatts by 2030, with 52 per cent coming from renewable sources. “Initially, we want to give a mixed type of green and conventional power to the data center. But somehow, in future, we feel that all this power should be green power,” the Chief Minister explained.
The state has established an AI mission and formed a committee of business leaders to develop a new AI policy. “The terms of reference is to make Maharashtra leader in AI,” Fadnavis stated. The government is already training 10,000 women in AI in partnership with Microsoft.
Maharashtra is also emerging as India’s startup capital, with approximately 20,000 startups, leading in both absolute numbers and investment. About 35 per cent of these startups operate in the fintech space, reinforcing Mumbai’s position as the fintech hub.
The state is actively developing Global Capability Centers (GCCs), with plans to create dedicated ecosystems in Mumbai, Pune, Nagpur, Sambhajnagar, and Nashik. “We are creating a GCC park in Navi Mumbai, which will host many GCCs. There are four or five which we are in active talks and mostly will close,” Fadnavis revealed.
A new innovation city spanning 300 acres is being planned in Navi Mumbai. “We want to host everything and anything in terms of technology, innovation and AI in this city,” the Chief Minister said, adding that Tata Group Chairman N. Chandrasekaran is helping develop the framework.
In agriculture, Maharashtra is implementing the AgriStack program for end-to-end digitization of farming cycles. “It is about digitization of the farmlands, farm produce, market access, every single thing,” Fadnavis explained. The state has also digitized multi-purpose societies in villages to enhance farmer financing and market connectivity.
Looking ahead to the 2027 Nashik Kumbh, the state plans to leverage technology for crowd management and administration. “This will be technologically most advanced Kumbh… People, even those who just cannot go and bathe in the holy water will get the experience of having bathed in the holy water,” Fadnavis said, while emphasizing that the sanctity of the event will remain unchanged.
The state’s broader economic vision includes becoming India’s first trillion-dollar subnational economy. The Mumbai Metropolitan Region alone has the potential to achieve a $1.5 trillion economy, according to a roadmap developed with NITI Aayog. “If we work properly, the MMR region itself can become a 1.5 trillion dollar economy,” Fadnavis stated. The Hindu BusinessLine