Hyderabad: KT Rama Rao, Minister of Municipal Administration and Urban Development of Telangana, on Monday, hailed Microsoft's announcement of setting up its fourth data centre in Hyderabad. He described it as one of the largest Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) inflows since the formation of the state.
"IT giant Microsoft is set to set up its fourth data centre in the country in Hyderabad. For this, Rs 15,000 crore will be invested in phases over a period of 15 years," said Telangana State IT and Industries Minister KTR. He described it as one of the largest foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows since the formation of Telangana.
Microsoft is setting up the largest data centre in the country here, which will enable it to grow many businesses locally and create jobs, KTR said, adding that it would provide job opportunities in data and network security for network engineering professionals. He further said that there has been a significant increase in the number of Microsoft employees at Hyderabad, having tripled in the last seven years to 9,000. He also said that the US tech giant was cooperating with the government over the use of cloud services.
Ananth Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India, said, "We have doubled the capacity of our data centres in Pune, Mumbai, and Chennai to meet the growing demand." The Hyderabad data centre is expected to be available by early 2025. Initially, it was said to be starting with a low capacity but gradually becoming the largest data centre. He said the investment would be commensurate with that. He said the new centre would further strengthen the cloud and provide assistance to start-ups.
According to the IDC report, Microsoft's three data centres in the country generated $ 9.5 billion (approximately Rs. 71,000 crores) in revenue to the economy between 2016-20, creating 1.50 lakh jobs and 1.69 lakh professionals.
The event was attended by US Consul General in Hyderabad Joel Reifman, State IT Secretary Jayesh Ranjan, Microsoft IDC Managing Director, and Corporate Vice President Rajiv Kumar.
120 crore internet users in two years
Rajiv Chandrasekhar, Union Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, said that Microsoft Data Centers would greatly support the country's digital economy and enable long-term investment. The number of Internet users in the country is around 80 crores and in two years it will reach 120 crores. He said the central government was giving priority to the digitization and all government departments were making arrangements to provide services through apps.
Purchase of land at a cost of Rs 276 crore
According to sources, Microsoft had bought three sites for the data centre to be set up in Hyderabad for Rs 276 crore. It is learned that 22 acres were provided in Mekaguda near Pottur, 41 acres in Shadnagar, and 52 acres in Chandanavelli. Cushman & Wakefield, an international real estate services firm, is reported to have completed the transaction.
