"NTT DATA VERY KEEN ON INDIA"

NTT DATA Services CDO Tanvir Khan speaks with BW Businessworld on India's heightened relevance in tough market conditions, quantum computing and Al

- ROHIT CHINTAPALI

It has been long established that data is the most important commodity in today's world. While individual packets of data aren't of much value, aggregated, their value exponentially grows. It pretty much runs the world and data centres act like the quintessential nuclei facilitating their movement.

According to credit rating agency ICRA, 4,900-5,000 MW of data centre capacity involving investments of about Rs 1.50 lakh crore is likely to be added in the next six years in India. The increasing demand has driven Indian entities such as the Hiranandani Group, the Adani Group, to enter JVs with EdgeConnex, the Reliance Group. Even captive consumers such as Amazon and Microsoft have begun investing heavily in Indian data centres.

Meanwhile, Japan-based NTT DATA has been present in the country for a while and continues to expand. "We have a very large data centre presence in India and NTT DATA is very interested and bullish on India," said Tanvir Khan, Chief Digital Officer (CDO) at NTT DATA Services.

This is reflected in the presence of NTT DATA's employee base in India as well, which is second only to its home base, Japan. Given the growing business proposition of India, the company continues to add to its headcount in the country.

Khan added that the company views India to be a huge data centre and IT services market. "Compute needs of India is going to be huge and as this evolves, it's one of our single largest delivery locations," he said.

"While we are servicing APAC, Europe and North America, India still continues to be a preferred location for talent, availability, scalability and cost advantage," he said.