Shares of Anant Raj gained 14% to hit the day’s high of ₹576 per share, while E2E Networks, a provider of cloud computing services, also jumped 10% to ₹2,334 in today’s session, February 01, after Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced major tax incentives, signaling the government’s goal to boost data center infrastructure.
In her Budget speech on February 1, Sitharaman said, “Recognising the need to enable critical infrastructure and boost investment in data centres, I propose to provide a tax holiday till 2047 to any foreign company that provides cloud services to customers globally by using data centre services from India. It will, however, need to provide services to Indian customers through an Indian reseller entity.”
“I also propose to provide a safe harbour of 15 per cent on cost in case the company providing data centre services from India is a related entity,” she further stated.
India is rapidly building a robust AI computing and semiconductor infrastructure to support its growing digital economy.
The Indian government, in March 2024, approved a comprehensive IndiaAI mission at a budget outlay of ₹104 billion to create a public artificial intelligence (AI) compute infrastructure of over 10,000 graphic processing units, or GPUs, built through the public-private partnership route.
Further, it aims to design an AI marketplace to offer AI-as-a-service and pre-trained models to AI innovators and will also act as a one-stop solution for resources critical for AI innovation.
Long-term tax incentives to encourage greater investments, says expert
Mr Raju Vegesna, Chairman & Managing Director, Sify Technologies Ltd, said, “The Union Budget for 2026-27 emphasizes accelerating India’s AI journey and strengthening the country’s data center infrastructure. This focus is timely and forward-looking. The Budget combines long-term tax incentives for cloud and data center investments with a broader push for digital infrastructure and innovation. It recognizes that high-quality computing capacity is now crucial to India’s growth, just like roads and power.”
“As a home-grown, AI-ready data center platform with a growing presence in India’s key digital hubs, we see these measures as a positive sign for sustained, cost-effective capacity creation,” says Vegesna.
“They also promote deeper partnerships with hyperscalers and faster cloud adoption by enterprises. These initiatives will allow us to continue investing in energy-efficient, high-density infrastructure that supports India’s AI workloads, protects data sovereignty, and helps global and domestic customers run their most demanding applications in India,” says Vegesna.
“Overall, the Budget supports a long-term, demand-driven vision for the country’s digital infrastructure sector, which aligns with our goal of building India’s trusted, large-scale colocation and AI infrastructure platform,” added Vegesna
Larsen & Toubro holds 19% stake in E2E Networks
E2E Networks is an NSE-listed, MeitY-empanelled, AI-focused hyperscale cloud platform, offering advanced cloud GPUs and a full ecosystem of cloud technologies designed for the development and deployment of AI/ML/GenAI workloads on large-scale compute clusters.
According to Trendlyne shareholding data, Larsen & Toubro Limited held a 19% stake in the company at the end of the December quarter. The stock has delivered a massive 9,054% return over the last five years.
Disclaimer: We advise investors to check with certified experts before making any investment decisions.
