MUMBAI: Amazon said on Friday its Indian operations had reached a major milestone in water conservation, at a time when ​global tech giants face increasing pressure over their expansion of resource-hungry AI data centers.

The US-based company announced it had turned “water positive” in India this year — meaning it returns more water to communities than it uses across its operations, which include data centers, corporate offices and warehouses.

It said it accomplished the goal ‌a year earlier ‌than planned, both by reducing ​water ‌use ⁠at its ​facilities and through ⁠projects such as watershed restoration and efficient irrigation.

Amazon, Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google are among companies that are facing shareholder and activist pushback over the environmental impact of data center projects, Reuters reported earlier this year.

Amazon has set a goal to become water positive globally ⁠in its data center operations by 2030. ‌The company said it ‌does not use water to cool its ​Indian data centers.