New Delhi: Technology infrastructure companies that are building data centres in India are petitioning the government to mandate local storage of user data as well as “reciprocity” in cross-border data flows, the Economic Times has reported, citing industry executives.The data centre companies have asked for Indian users’ data to be transferred only to countries that allow their citizens’ data to be sent to India, the newspaper said. They also asked that a copy of the data stored overseas be also kept in India.“Reciprocity of data should be allowed,” Darshan Hiranandani, chairman of Yotta Infrastructure, told the business daily.These companies told ET that keeping users’ data in India will be beneficial for the government – economically, forex-wise, job-wise and growth-wise.The draft Digital Personal Data Protection Bill released in November last year – an earlier iteration of which had sought to restrict transfer, processing and storage of data overseas – will allow storing and transferring of personal data in some countries where the government is confident that users’ data will be protected.Also read: Data Protection Bill Is Riddled With Arbitrary Provisions That Violate the Right to PrivacyThis is a huge relief for tech companies like Amazon and Meta, which had called the earlier draft “onerous”.However, STT Global Data Centre – the largest data centre chain in India with a 33% market share – told ET that jobs and investments in the sector will be severely hurt by the new norms in the draft of the Digital Personal Data Protection Bill.The Union government is expected to seek passage of the draft in the next parliamentary session in April or May 2023.According to the Hindu BusinessLine, the data centre industry was valued at over $1.2 billion in 2021. India’s data centre capacity was at 637 megawatts in the first half of 2022 and is expected to double to 1318 MW by 2024.As on March 2022, there are 138 data centres in India, which is projected to reach 183 by 2025.