The government has requested that Microsoft place future data centers closer to electricity generation sources rather than near cable reception stations. According to the Secretary of Information Technology, S. Krishnan, this decision will reduce costs for both the company and the country.
During the presentation of Microsoft's fourth cloud region in Hyderabad, India, Krishnan noted that building data centers near power sources is more economical and simpler than placing them near coastal cable landing points like Chennai. He emphasized that the government will continue to facilitate the expedited approval process to meet the needs of both the country and the global community.
On this day, Microsoft officially launched its fourth cloud region in India, located in Hyderabad. This launch is part of the company's commitment to investing $20.5 billion in the country's digital and AI infrastructure. The new region, named India South Central, became available to the public on August 6 and joins the company's existing regions in Mumbai, Chennai, and Pune.
Krishnan called this launch an important step toward strengthening India's AI and data center infrastructure. He stated that the country needs to simultaneously adopt the best global technologies while developing its own sovereign computing power. He also pointed out that India's massive population of 1.4 billion people, along with its growing digital public infrastructure, generates large volumes of data that represent a 'treasure trove' for artificial intelligence applications, giving the country the potential to become an 'application superpower.'
Furthermore, Krishnan indicated that India's tax policy, ease of doing business, and a new telecommunications law that simplifies mutual interconnection of facilities have made the process of building and connecting a data center to the power grid in India easier than in many other nations.