Satya Nadella To Meet KCR Next Month; Microsoft To Expand In Telangana

In what could be termed as a prelude to Satya Nadella’s visit, the Microsoft (India) chairman Bhaskar Pramanik has met with CM KCR on Monday. Telangana IT Minister KT Rama Rao was present at the meeting. The meeting discussed Microsoft’s expansion plans in Hyderabad.

Pramanik briefed Rao of the activities of Microsoft in India and also discussed the tax policy being followed in the country. A statement from the chief minister’s office said Pramanik announced that Microsoft will further expand its operations in Telangana.

The global software major has its India development centre here. Set up in 1998, it is the largest R&D centre of Microsoft outside its Redmond (US) facility.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella will be visiting Hyderabad next month. In fact, when Satya was made CEO of Microsoft, the then IT Minister of AP Ponnala Laxmaiah extended an official invitation to him to visit the State.

This will be the first visit of the 47-year-old Nadella to India after he took over as the CEO early this year. Hailing from Andhra Pradesh, he studied at Hyderabad Public School here. Son of retired Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer N. Yugandhar, he succeeded Steve Balmer as the CEO.

AP CM Naidu too had invited Satya Nadella to his swearing-in ceremony last month. Naidu bizarrely claimed it is he who inspired Satya Nadella to take up IT! Naidu hopes to kick-start the development of IT sector in AP through a big ticket investment from Microsoft and has already wrote to Satya Nadella for a meeting in Hyderabad during his trip next month.