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It has been a month since Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced setting up local data centres in India. The move comes at a when both government and private majors are getting concerned about data security and sovereignty. Karan Bajwa, managing director of Microsoft India, says, “The government, Reserve Bank, and others, will have to go through a change in the policy environment. We are working with these people and educating them about the public cloud.”

Microsoft has decided to spend Rs 1,400 crore on setting up three data centres in the country. In a filing with the Registrar of Companies, the US software giant said it has started work on setting up the cloud data centres in Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. “The biggest cloud data centres we have globally are capable of handling 600,000 servers in just one region. That’s a massive amount of compute. Increasing this scale helps us in being more competitive,” corporate vice president for Microsoft Azure Jason Zanders said.

It has been a month since Satya Nadella made his first visit to India as CEO of Microsoft and announced setting up local data centres. In a recent interview, Karan Bajwa, MD, Microsoft India, talked about Microsoft’s plans to setup local datacenters and the regulatory hurdles in India that hinders the growth of cloud. Bajwa said, “The government, Reserve Bank, etc, will also have to go through a change in the policy environment on the public cloud, a natural process everybody will have to go through. Those are people we are working with, also to educate them about the public cloud.”

Seeing a $2 trillion promise in India’s cloud market, Microsoft has decided to spend Rs 1,400 crore on setting up three data centres in the country. For Microsoft, India is the fastest growing cloud market with earning of Rs. 2,261 crore in FY13-14. Jason Zanders, Corporate VP, Microsoft Azure, Microsoft said, “The biggest cloud data centers we have globally are capable of handling 600,000 servers in just one region. That’s a massive amount of compute. Increasing this scale helps us in being more competitive.”

In the first step to make Surat a smart city, Microsoft will soon set up an incubation centre in the city that will develop applications for a number of civic services. The Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) has agreed to provide space and bear the capital expenditure for the centre. Microsoft will run Appathon, a marathon of applications, which will provide quick and sustainable solutions for as many as eight basic services like drainage, sewerage and water supply.

The company has announced that it will be rebranding its enterprise-focused instant messaging service Lync as ‘Skype for Business’. As part of the rebranding, which will happen in the first half of 2015, Microsoft will make the new versions of Skype for Business, Skype for Business on-premises service, and Skype for Business online services and bundle them as a part of Office 365. Microsoft will be utilizing the Skype icons for calling, adding video, and enabling a call in Skype for Business.

Microsoft Corp. said it will make its .Net programming tools freely available in an open source model, a significant move by CEO Satya Nadella to enable the company’s software to work with rival technologies. The company will also expand the .Net tools so they can run on Linux and Apple Inc.’s Mac operating systems. The products that will be available in an open source model include all of the .Net programming tools that are used to develop applications for server networks.

Microsoft has officially unveiled its first smartphone without Nokia branding—Lumia 535. The smartphone will be available in dual-sim and single sim variants from November at an estimated price of 110 euros (Rs 8,400 approximately) (excluding taxes and subsidies) with sales starting in China, Hong Kong and Bangladesh. The phone has a 5MP front camera for selfies and Skype calls, and an LED flash at the back to take low-light photos.

At a press conference on Microsoft’s campus, CEO Satya Nadella spoke about how Microsoft’s two biggest rivals Apple and Google have a clear identity and are clearly the best in their various fields of specialization—in Apple’s case it is hardware that they excel at, while for Google the key is search. According to Nadella, Microsoft is really about productivity. They are the “tools provider, the platform provider,” to those who want to create their own app or even a document.

Owing to long working hours, people complain about back problems, pains in joints and muscle cramps. However, there’s a simple solution to this, stand up while you work. The idea of standing and working has been gaining traction in the Indian cubicle space. Rohit Thakur, Head, Human Resources at Microsoft India, says, “The trend is definitely becoming more evident as people become more conscious of their health. As the workforce increases, so will the need to support diversity and flexibility in the workplace. A standing workstation is an example of adapting to the needs of employees to help them feel fit and better engaged at the workplace.”