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Tech giant Microsoft will set up its largest and fourth data centre in India at Hyderabad with an investment outlay of over Rs 15,000 crore over a period of 15 years.
"I am very happy to say today that Hyderabad will be the destination for Microsoft's largest Data Centre investment in India with an investment of over Rs 15,000 crore over a period of 15 years.
"This will be one of the largest FDIs that Telangana has attracted," Telangana Minister for IT and Industries KT Rama Rao on Monday said at an event marking the announcement of Microsoft's latest data centre region in Hyderabad.
This will indirectly support local business growth and facilitate job creation across IT operations, facilities management, data and network security, network engineering and much more, he said.
Microsoft is also keen on supporting the government with cloud adoption and usage of advanced technologies, he said.
Microsoft said it expects to make the data centre at Hyderabad operational by 2025 and it comes in addition to the existing three facilities located in Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai.
It will offer the entire Microsoft portfolio across the cloud, data solutions, artificial intelligence (AI), productivity tools, and customer relationship management (CRM) with advanced data security, for enterprises, start-ups, developers, education, and government institutions.
Microsoft India President Anant Maheshwari said the company's latest data centre region in Hyderabad will be the largest data centre that we will have in India going forward.
"Typically it takes at least 24 months to create an infrastructure like that.
"The target data for the operationalisation of this data centre will be 2025," he said.
He further said in the last two years Microsoft more than doubled data centres' capacity in India.
"It (Hyderabad data centre) will not be largest from Day 1 but it will become the largest over a period of time," Maheshwari said.
"It is a continuous investment process. For Hyderabad data centre also it will be an ongoing investment process and it will expand," he said.
"The new data centre will augment Microsoft's cloud capabilities and capacity to support those working across the country.
"It will also support new entrepreneurial opportunities while meeting critical security and compliance needs.
"The new data centre region is a testament to our mission to empower the people and organisations of India to achieve more," he said.
Citing data from research firm IDC, he said Microsoft datacenters in India contributed $9.5 billion revenue to the economy between 2016 and 2020.
Besides GDP impact, the IDC report estimated 1.5 million jobs were added to the economy, including 169,000 new skilled IT jobs.
Earlier, speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar said, "A Microsoft data centre region provides a competitive advantage to our digital economy and is a long-term investment in our country's potential.
"The cloud is transforming every industry and sector.
"The investment in skilling will empower India's workforce today and into the future.”
He said India is clearly on the road to becoming a preeminent nation in the use of technology for the benefit of citizens to strengthen governance.
Chandrasekhar said today there about 80 crore Indians online and it is expected in the next two years it will grow to 120 crore (Internet users in the country).
India will be among the largest connected nations in the world. The Centre has already made rapid strides in using technology in governance and over the next years you will see sharp acceleration of that digitisation and more and more government apps and services will go to the cloud, he said.
"One of the public policy objectives of our government is not just to connect all Indians and not just to digitise but it is also to make sure that cyberspace in India remains open, safe and trusted and accountable," the Union minister added.