Hyderabad/New Delhi, March 7 : Microsoft on Monday announced the establishment of its latest data centre region in Hyderabad to help customers in India thrive in a cloud and AI-enabled digital economy. The Hyderabad data centre region will be an addition to the existing network of three regions in India across 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. "A Microsoft data centre region provides a competitive advantage to our digital economy and is a long-term investment in our country's potential," said Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Minister of State for Skill Development & IT. To support customer needs for high availability and resiliency, Microsoft launched Azure Availability Zones in December 2021 in its Central India data centre region. Telangana is emerging as a 'challenger' in the Indian IT sector for its software exports registering an increase by seven percent year-over-year to reach Rs 5 trillion ($67.4 billion) in FY21. "Microsoft and Telangana have a long history, with Hyderabad hosting one of the largest Microsoft offices in the world, and I am happy to see the relationship grow," said K.T. Rama Rao, Industries Minister and TRS working president. Microsoft's customers in India are Jio, Inmobi, Infosys, TCS, ICICI, Bajaj Finserv, Apollo Hospitals, Mahindra, Dr. Reddy's Labs, Piramal, State Bank of India, Flipkart, Pidilite, and Amity, among others. "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," said Anant Maheshwari, President, Microsoft India. Microsoft is aiming to have a 100 per cent renewable energy supply equivalent to the electricity consumed by its data centres by 2025. /IANS