MS India to Set up 4th Data Centre in Hyderabad

Microsoft India intends to set up its fourth data centre in Hyderabad. The city is already home to the US-based technology giant’s largest engineering centre and campus globally outside the United States with over 18,000 employees.

This will be its largest data centre in India and among the largest foreign direct investments into Telangana. The company’s other data centre regions are in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai.

The move is aimed at meeting the growing demand for public cloud in India, which had been accelerated by the Covid-19 pandemic, Anant Maheshwari, president, Microsoft India said. “We more than doubled the capacity at our existing facilities in India during the first year of the pandemic and this is directly correlated to the nature of the growth we’ve seen,” Maheshwari said. “We’ve taken significant incremental share in the overall new cloud consumption that has hap the overall new cloud consumption that has happened in the country and, therefore, have become the number one player in the country. ”

With $10 billion Investment, India can Tap $2 trillion Global Chip Market

An investment of about $10 billion can help Indian industry tap into a $2 trillion global opportunity in the semiconductor market, IIT Delhi professor V Ramgopal Rao said on Monday.

There is a need to bridge the gap between the academia and industry as multiple startups are coming up in the nanotechnology sector, Rao, the immediate past director at IIT Delhi, said. He was speaking at a session on ‘Fuelling Manufacturing on the Nanoscale in India by Developing Semiconductor Ecosystem’ at the Bengaluru India Nano Summit 2022. More centres of excellence need to come up and a patenting culture should be encouraged to build on the strengths of the fledgling nanotechnology ecosystem, he said. The Maruti Suzuki model, Rao said, had transformed the semiconductor space in meeting the demand forsemiconductors, with a few critical changes taking place due to a collaboration between Maruti Suzuki and Suzuki Motor. India ranks fifth in nano-electronic research in the world and there are seven institutions that are working to boost R&D in the nano space, he said.

Pune: PMRDA to submit plan for Metro Line-4

The state government will soon take up for consideration the proposed Metro line connecting the IT hub Hinjewadi to Hadapsar-Loni Kalbhor, besides holding discussions on extending the corridor from the Civil Court to the Saswad Road railway station.

The Pune Metropolitan Region Development Authority will submit a detailed project report in this regard to the state government, which will eventually decide on its mode of execution and implementing agency. “The state government will decide on the implementing agency and whether it should be carried out in the same public-private partnership model as Line-3 (Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar),” said a state official close to the development.

The DPR, besides extending the line from Civil Court to Saswad Road railway station, will also include two more corridors that will connect lines from Hadapsar Bus depot to Loni railway station (9.81km) and Pulgate to Swargate (3.79km).

The official said the government also has engineering, procurement and construction model to consider for the proposed Metro Line-4. The PMRDA has already appointed Pune IT City Metro Rail Limited for the 23km elevated Hinjewadi-Shivajinagar route. The DPR for the Line-4 was readied by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation, which will be implemented by the agency-appointed following proper study, sources from the PMRDA said.

The proposed Metro Line-4 will have 15 stations between Shivajinagar and Hadapsar, eight from Hadapsar bus depot to Loni Kalbhor and around three from Pulgate to Swargate.

Maharashtra records impressive toll collection via FASTag

Maharashtra has recorded impressive figures when it comes to toll collection via FASTag, a little more than a year after it was made mandatory.

According to the National Highways Authority of India, which manages and controls around 58 toll plazas across the state, the average toll collection via FASTag since it was made mandatory from February 15 last year is around 89%.

Officials at the Pune division, which manages the Anewadi toll plaza and the Khed Shivapur toll plaza along the Pune-Satara highway, said that 95% of motorists have been using FASTag.

At the Anewadi and Khed Shivapur toll plazas respectively, while a total toll of Rs.111.44 crore and

Rs.181.42crore was collected last year, the Anewadi toll plaza saw a collection of Rs. 98.3 crore via

FASTag and the Khed Shivapur toll plaza saw a collection of Rs162. 7crore via FASTags during the

same period. “When the implementation started, it was decided that a double toll would be charged from those without tags. ” the official said.

On the Mumbai-Pune expressway, which is managed by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation, officials said that the toll collection via FASTags on two plazas (Talegaon and Khalapur) had touched 95%.

The official also said that while most commercial vehicles have FASTag, the issue is with those moving in private vehicles.

Modi flags off Pune Metro

Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled a plaque to inaugurate the Pune Metro rail at the Garware College station, used a mobile phone to secure a ticket, waved a green flag to the rake and stepped into a coach to become the Metro’s first passenger for a 5km ride till the Anandnagar (Paud Road) station. He also virtually inaugurated another Metro rail run, from PCMC to Phugewadi, slated for the day.

Speaking at a function later, Modi said that as many as 60 crore people will reside in cities by 2030 and mass transport was the only way forward for urban India as there are limitations to constructing new roads and flyovers.

The metro rakes on their inaugural run were decked with flowers and a festive atmosphere prevailed at the newly-built stations. Modi was conducted around the Garware station by a senior MahaMetro official for a review of the entire project. He was accompanied, among others, by Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, former CM Devendra Fadnavis, deputy CM Ajit Pawar and UDD minister Eknath Shinde. Incidentally, Modi had laid the foundation stone for the Pune metro rail project on December 26, 2016.

On the train, Modi joined a group of students, including differently-abled children, from the Vimalabai Garware secondary and higher secondary school and the Kamayani school. He interacted with them throughout the 10-minute ride while making a mention about his journey experience in a guest book.

CredAvenue: 11th unicorn in 2022

Chennai-based debt marketplace CredAvenue became the 11th startup to join the unicorn club in this year after raising $137 million in a series-B round led by New York-based Insight Partners, B Capital Group, and Dragoneer.

The funding values the company at a post-money valuation of $1. 3 billion — more than doubling from the company’s previous series-A round of $90 million in September 2021.

CredAvenue intends to use the funds to expand India business and focus on global markets both organically and inorganically. It plans to acquire diverse companies for the forward and backward services and products integration. It will also use the funds to enhance its tech capabilities by investing in deep technology innovations, AI, ML, and data analytics.

The debt marketplace connects enterprises with lenders and investors and has a portfolio of five platforms addressing areas of term lending, co-lending partnerships, bond platform, trade financing solutions, and securitisation.

CredAvenue currently has over 2,300 corporates, 750 lenders on its platform and claims to have facilitated debt volumes of over Rs 90,000 crore.

1st cargo ship from Patna via Bangladesh reaches Assam

Assam received its first consignment of foodgrains from Patna via Bangladesh on Sunday at Pandu in Guwahati, ushering a new age for inland waterways in the state as Brahmaputra (National Waterway-2) gets connected with Ganga (NW-1) by the Indo-Bangladesh Protocol route. MV Lal Bahadur Shastri carrying 200MT of foodgrains for Food Corporation of India completed the maiden pilot run from Patna.

The vessel sailed 2,350km from Patna on NW-1, passed through Bhagalpur, Manihari, Sahibganj, Farakka, Tribeni, Kolkata, Haldia, Hemnagar; the Indo Bangladesh Protocol route through Khulna, Narayanganj, Sirajganj, Chilmari; and NW-2 through Dhubri and Jogighopa.

Union minister of ports, shipping and waterways Sarbananda Sonowal, accompanied by Assam chief mninister Himanta Biswa Sarma, received the consignment.