| | March 20199than residential homes (internet penetration in China stands at around 53 percent compared to 76 percent in the U.S.). A Country of ChangeIn the last five years, the government has undertaken large-scale projects such as the Digital India Initiative to improve internet penetration. Regulators have also tried to promote investment in the infrastructure of smaller towns & villages, with some subsidized tariffs coming into play. India is seeing growth and maturation as these emerging markets begin to evolve and participate in the digital economy. The expanding digital needs at this point are still mainly coming from large metropolitan cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Chennai, and Bengaluru. Each of the major cities has its own advantages and disadvantages. Bangalore or Bengaluru has established itself as the Silicon Valley of India, with an influx of startups and an excellent technical workforce, as well as being located in a disaster free zone. However, the city also has a less desirable geographic placement and higher power rates. The capital of Tamil Nadu, Chennai, sits at a major entry & exit point for international subsea ca-bles coming in & out of the Asia-Pacific, and is now the fourth largest data center city in India. Today, Mumbai has the most subsea cables, highest number of top-quali-ty data centers, and the most reliable power. Mumbai cur-rently holds a third of multi-tenant data centers in India. Mumbai does sit on a Seismic fault region. New Delhi also sits on several fault lines and experiences earth-quakes fairly often. Air quality is poor and there have been regulations on diesel & diesel generator usage, and the city is known for having the lowest grid reliability. It is also is the home of the government and is the most pop-ulated city, its National Capital Region has a total popu-lation of approximately 46 million. Pune is another city that is strategically located for growth, situated close to Mumbai, with lower costs of land & power, but also with the low latency connections into Mumbai. Upcoming Challenges & OpportunitiesAs these cities try to challenge each other for the IT infrastructure market and related growth, they must also face the related obstacles inherently held by each location. "Most data center investment is focused on these five cities, reflecting India's booming economic growth in dense urban areas," said Teddy Miller, Associate Analyst at 451 Research and the report's author. Providers in the country must overcome an array of obstacles, though, including lack of infrastructure, socioeconomic inequality, government bureaucracy, and hesitation on the part of local businesses to adopt colocation services. New Delhi is known for its government agencies and heavy industrial manufacturing. Demand for data center capacity had been low, but is steadily increasing. Mumbai, on the other hand, is know more for general financial & commercial organizations. It is anticipated that the Indian Parliament is expected to pass a form of data localization law this year. According to 451 Research, the coming data localization regulations mean that cloud, online content, and financial services' demand for footprint in India's primary commercial hub is expected to accelerate, so many of the country's largest players have plans for new Mumbai campuses, some even before current builds have filled. Overall, this will mean infrastructure improvement and perhaps more international modular construction. This will long-term be a positive move for the industry in India.Subsistence MarketplacesWith the engineering talent in India, there may be some positive impact to the data center industry in India, examining the intersection of poverty & marketplaces and various needs. The data center industry in general is facing a shortage of skilled workers, we need to get creative about reaching new groups of workers, as well as better training methods. Programs like Digital India, the campaign launched by the Government of India is important progress for India, setup to ensure that Government services are available to citizens electronically. This will only occur with better online infrastructure and Internet connectivity access. This program and overall increasing digital demand and availability will also help to make India digitally empowered in the field of technology. The data center industry in general is facing a shortage of skilled workers, we need to get creative about reaching new groups of workers, as well as better training methods
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