India's Submarine Cable Infrastructure and Data Center Geography

Abstract

This paper maps the relationship between submarine cable landing stations and the emerging geography of data center clusters across India. Drawing on primary geospatial data collected by the Saral Systems Council, we identify thirteen landing stations across six coastal states and analyze their proximity to planned and operational data center campuses. The analysis reveals that India's data center geography is increasingly shaped by international bandwidth availability rather than domestic demand patterns alone. We find that landing stations in Mumbai and Chennai anchor over 78% of India's international bandwidth capacity, creating a coastal concentration that has significant implications for latency, resilience, and regional digital equity. The paper proposes a connectivity-weighted site selection framework for data center developers and policymakers seeking to balance infrastructure efficiency with geographic distribution.

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