On-demand technology adoption in India is rising faster than global peers

As India accelerates its digital transformation agenda, cloud adoption, GenAI-driven modernisation, and financial governance models are reshaping enterprise technology strategies. Indu Malhotra, Vice President, Cloud Infrastructure Services - India of Capgemini, offers a detailed and data-backed assessment of these shifts based on Capgemini’s latest Cloud and On-Demand Technology Report.

In this interview, she discusses India’s rapid on-demand technology adoption, the evolving importance of FinOps and cloud economics, the rise of sovereign cloud and regulatory governance, and the growing convergence of sustainability with cloud operations. Her insights provide a comprehensive outlook on how Indian enterprises will navigate cost, compliance, innovation, and scalability in 2026.

The report states that on-demand technologies account for 33% of IT spend in India, compared to 29% globally. What factors are driving India’s pace in this sector?

India is uniquely placed due to not having extensive technical debt. Adoption of new technology areas, including on-demand services such as cloud infrastructure-as-a-service, platform-as-a-service, and SaaS, is quite high and will continue to grow. We do not see any tapering. Adoption in India is currently around 33%, compared to 29% globally, and this is expected to increase further in the next 12 to 18 months.

Within Capgemini’s Cloud Infrastructure Services in India, which industry verticals or application areas are showing the highest demand and growth trajectory?

Growth is visible across all industry verticals. Traditional sectors such as banking and financial services continue to grow, and sectors like manufacturing and retail are also showing strong momentum. Cloud has become pivotal for acceleration of go-to-market strategies. With the rising adoption of GenAI, cloud becomes an essential platform enabler. We are witnessing healthy adoption across all industry verticals.

The report highlights that 86% of Indian executives report rising cloud costs, but only 20% have dedicated FinOps teams. Why are Indian organisations lagging in formalising cost governance, and what is your advice for CFOs and CIOs for 2026?

This is an interesting dilemma. The first wave of cloud focused on adoption, with a shift from data centres to cloud. In that wave, the focus was on exiting data centres and moving workloads to cloud. This resulted in significant increases in cloud consumption, and cloud case costs ended up being higher than expected.

Multiple factors contribute to this increase.

• Decentralised tech procurement makes cloud access easy for any business unit to procure IaaS or PaaS.

• This decentralisation creates underutilised pockets of resources across the organisation.

• While one business scales, another may stagnate, preventing cross-utilisation of cloud resources.

• Lack of visibility and governance, especially regarding show-back and charge-back, further complicates matters.

This is why FinOps has become crucial. FinOps must now be engaged by design, not post-implementation. It is becoming a governance conversation rather than just an operational activity. It is evolving into cloud economics, where FinOps teams provide inputs for architectural considerations, data residency, regulatory and compliance requirements.

A strict discipline in tagging principles and policies, with 100% tagging compliance, is essential. This introduces accountability for every cloud resource. We gain clarity on which business unit and application is consuming which resource, enabling cross-functional decision-making. Discussions now integrate architecture, platform, ways of working, and cloud consumption.

In India, heavy adoption of multi-cloud brings additional complexity due to varied SKUs and invoicing models. A robust multi-cloud FinOps governance model is vital for real-time cost visibility and accountability. It helps align technology spend with business outcomes. The focus is not just on capacity usage but on understanding how investments deliver business value.

Setting up a FinOps office and evolving it into a cloud economics office becomes instrumental not only for cost optimisation but for forecasting future cloud consumption needs.

How is the conversation around cloud shifting within the C-suite? Are CFOs becoming more focused on ROI and consumption models, and what metrics are they demanding?

There is strong focus on consumption models, with transparency being the first priority. C-level leaders are looking to move away from purely reactive cost control to strategic financial operations.

They are focusing on enabling engineering, finance, and business teams through data-driven decisions. The shift is from viewing FinOps as cost arbitrage to treating it as a cross-functional capability that provides real-time updates on cost consumption and cost intelligence across all on-demand technologies.

Leaders want insights that show how wastage can be reduced and how planned business-case ROI is being met after transformation. KPIs are shifting to unit-based cost metrics, such as cost per transaction or cost per digital initiative. Cloud is no longer seen purely as a cost centre.

The report notes that 54% of Indian organisations define sovereignty as using local cloud providers or ensuring data localisation. What is your view on this India-specific definition, and how is it influencing procurement and architectural decisions in enterprises?

Digital sovereignty, including cloud sovereignty, is a balance between architecture and governance. In India, regulatory requirements from bodies like RBI and IRDAI mandate localisation of data and specify where data residency and transactions must occur.

This is driving architectural segmentation, keeping sensitive data and crown jewels local while allowing other elements to be anonymised for innovation-led use cases. It is also driving multi-cloud and hybrid cloud deployment strategies, enabling governance while ensuring flexibility and scalability.

GenAI adoption highlights this further. Data governance is crucial, and more enterprises are exploring private GenAI implementations, either on on-premises cloud or private landing zones committed to staying local.

This approach ensures compliance without compromising agility and scalability.

How are India’s DPI and DPDPA standards influencing demand for sovereign cloud and data governance?

The DPDPA Act is now implemented, with an 18-month timeline for full compliance. Enterprises are actively adopting it. They are evaluating specific implications of the Act and defining their data residency requirements accordingly. This is shaping new governance and cloud deployment considerations.

The report notes that only 21% of Indian firms measure the environmental impact of cloud. What steps should organisations take to link FinOps and GreenOps effectively?

Sustainability is extremely important and a priority for us at Capgemini. We are working with global clients on integrating FinOps and GreenOps.

Hyperscalers publish their sustainability commitments, including net-zero targets for each availability zone. Based on this, we build dashboards that provide transparency on cost models (FinOps) and dashboards that measure carbon footprint and corresponding reduction strategies (GreenOps).

Best practices can be quickly adopted in India. The first step is establishing transparency and visibility into the current carbon footprint across cloud environments. This builds awareness and enables the adoption of effective GreenOps policies.

The report projects that on-demand technology spend will rise by 44% over the next 12 months. What opportunities and challenges do you foresee in achieving this growth?

There is significant expectation that on-demand technology spend will rise by 44% in the next 12 months. This is driven primarily by digital transformation initiatives and GenAI strategies. India has a vibrant ecosystem for adopting new technologies, and the startup ecosystem is also accelerating adoption, including for GenAI, faster than many global peers.

As adoption increases, there will be stronger focus on leveraging on-demand technologies and establishing robust FinOps disciplines, eventually moving towards a cloud economics model.