- Why in news
- On 29 October 2026, PIB released a backgrounder on India's cloud ecosystem. It covers MeghRaj, empanelled cloud providers, data centre growth and the policy push for domestic cloud.
- What it is
- MeghRaj is the Government of India's cloud initiative, launched by MeitY in 2014 to speed up e-governance and optimise public ICT spending. Its second generation, MeghRaj 2.0, offers IaaS, PaaS and SaaS to government departments through a distributed cloud architecture. It hosts platforms such as DigiLocker, MyGov and the National Scholarship Portal.
- MeghRaj launch
- MeghRaj was launched in 2014 by MeitY as the government's national cloud initiative.
- Deployment models
- A public cloud is shared among many customers. A private cloud is dedicated to one organisation. A hybrid cloud combines the two.
- Empanelled providers
- As of September 2026, India has 30 empanelled cloud service providers, both Indian and international.
- Cloud Selection Framework
- MeitY's March 2026 framework guides departments to pick cloud by data sensitivity. It prefers government-backed cloud such as NIC and State Data Centres, and allows hybrid use.
- NIC data centres
- NIC operates 4 National Data Centres and 24 Mini Data Centres for government hosting and cloud services.
Don’t confuse with Serverless computing vs no servers: Serverless computing still uses servers. The provider manages them and allocates resources when needed.
Don’t confuse with IaaS vs PaaS vs SaaS: IaaS rents raw infrastructure, PaaS gives a development platform, and SaaS gives finished software such as Zoom or Dropbox.
Science and technology: 57 Prelims questions since 2013; most test the concept behind the news, not the news itself. In Mains, 12 news-triggered questions.
Why it matters
- A domestic cloud strengthens control over sensitive data and supports data sovereignty.
- It lowers the cost of hosting for departments and gives start-ups and researchers scalable computing for AI.
Problems
- Rising dependence on cloud services raises risks of data security and loss of control over sensitive information.
- Data centre growth needs heavy capital, and capacity is concentrated in a few cities.
Way forward
- Use data classification to match sensitive data with government-backed or domestic cloud, with strong security and governance.
- Spread data centre hubs to more states and build cloud skills through programmes such as FutureSkills PRIME and NIELIT.
Put in your answer
Data centre capacity: India's data centre capacity was 1.57 GW in August 2026 and is projected to reach nearly 8 GW by 2030.
BHASHINI migration: BHASHINI moved to an Indian cloud run by Yotta, keeping its data and AI models within India's jurisdiction.
- 2015Mains GS3 · Q13Advantages and security of government cloud hosting versus in-house servers
- 2023Mains GS2 · Q8Inadequacies hampering effectiveness, transparency and accountability in e-governance
- 2025Mains GS2 · Q7Why e-governance projects favour technology and back-end integration over user-centric design
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting topic on cloud and data sovereignty; the backgrounder offers few testable facts, and cloud is mostly a concept question.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.