Microsoft boss Satya Nadella gives big thumbs up to India's digital story, calls it 'golden age' of tech

Microsoft Chairman & CEO, Satya Nadella today expressed high levels of optimism on India leading what he termed the 'public digital good' story.  "I am hugely encouraged by what I see," he said at the company's Future Ready Leadership Summit in Mumbai.

As per Nadella, by public digital good, he referred to fields like education, healthcare, and so on, which caters to the public, and where digitalisation can play a very important role in propelling it further.

Outlining specific areas such as language translation, Nadella said there was palpable dynamism in India, with a tremendous growth potential ahead. According to him, the current phase of the digital revolution globally is the golden age. "We saw it in the past with the computer revolution. Now, it is really about spreading productivity across sectors," the India-born CEO said. 

For that to take place, he explained that data infrastructure was critical. "Be it data analysis or just governance, we need to put in place one integrated data framework," said Nadella. On the issue of the big change globally, he picked out cloud. "I saw the PC revolution. What we are seeing with the cloud is the early to intermediate phase and it will only get more interesting."

To his mind, the cloud brings forth strategic advantages among which are being more energy-efficient to the extent of 70-80 per cent more efficient. "You consume it only when you need it," he added.

In the case of India, he referred to a host of clients among which were the Adani group, HDFC Bank where Microsoft has done significant cloud-related work. "There is momentum and also scope for innovation that exists," said Nadella. At the core of this are the data centres, where he expects India to play a big role. 

The other opportunity he referred to was AI, where the transition would be most interesting. "With the AI capabilities that India can generate through its talent base, there is a lot waiting to be done," he said. 

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