K’taka’s AI push and the risks it entails

Chief Minister D K Shivakumar has announced that Karnataka will establish India's first government-driven Artificial Intelligence University, reaffirming the state's ambition to become a global leader in AI innovation. Additionally, the government aims to set up an AI Hub as an incubation centre for research and development in AI by start-ups, companiesA and others.

Bengaluru is not just India's technology capital, nicknamed the ‘Silicon Valley’;  the city  is one of the world's most vibrant innovation ecosystems. For the records, the state currently contributes nearly 40 per cent of India's total software exports, while Bengaluru is home to over 17,000 start-ups and thousands of Global Capability Centres(GCCs) that design and engineer products for the global market. The government’s decision to set up the first government driven  AI University, is in line with its ambition to become an AI-native state, using Artificial Intelligence responsibly to improve governance and everyday lives. To continue strengthening its position as India's technology hub, the state   needs to expand its digital infrastructure, including data centres, to support AI innovation, cloud computing and next-generation digital services.

However, the government needs to address certain serious apprehensions, define its policy clearly, and the path ahead to mitigate risks associated with AI growth. And a prime question is that of water availability. Like much of Bengaluru, intensive borewell reliance makes the local water table susceptible to seasonal depletion and slow natural recharge rates. The city faces water shortages regularly, and this year with the drastically less rainfall, the old reliance on water tankers is back to tide over the situation.

Bengaluru’s 2024 water crisis exposed how vulnerable the city is when reservoirs decline and groundwater extraction outpaces replenishment.
According to a 2026 report by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW), a typical 100-megawatt (MW) hyper scale data centre, can consume around 20 lakh litres of water per day for cooling.The proposed AI University comes close on the heels of a proposed Greater Bengaluru Integrated Township (GBIT), also known as the Bidadi AI City, which has been in the eye of the storm since 2006 when it was first mooted.

The project aims to create an AI-powered hub, ease urban pressure on Bengaluru, and generate over 1 lakh jobs.  However, the project stoked controversies on many counts including impact on the environment, devastating fertile agricultural lands, and no mitigation path for water shortages, bypassing safeguards under the Land Acquisition Act, 2013 and not having received the final environmental clearances MoEFCC. In a city which still depends on tankers, adding a water- intensive AI infrastructure without a clear strategy of water crisis mitigation is risky to say the least.