Daijiworld Media Network – New Delhi
New Delhi, Jul 12: Bharti Airtel is strengthening its presence in financial services, data centres and cloud computing as the company's next major growth drivers after investing more than Rs 3.3 lakh crore in digital infrastructure over the past decade, Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
In the company's annual report, Mittal said Airtel has identified the three sectors as strategic growth areas and announced plans to invest Rs 20,000 crore in Airtel Money over the coming years.
He said Airtel Money has received approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a non-deposit taking Non-Banking Financial Company (NBFC), describing it as a significant step towards expanding financial inclusion.
"Airtel Money will be suitably capitalised over the years," Mittal said.
The company's data centre arm, Nxtra, is also expanding rapidly after raising USD 1 billion (around Rs 9,500 crore). Airtel plans to build 1 gigawatt (GW) of data centre capacity over the next few years, driven by increasing demand for cloud services, digital transformation and data localisation in India.
Mittal said Airtel Cloud, the company's sovereign cloud platform, has gained encouraging traction by offering secure, India-hosted cloud services tailored to enterprise customers. The platform has already secured more than 24 customer deals, he added.
He welcomed the government's policy initiatives supporting cloud computing, artificial intelligence and digital infrastructure, saying the long-term tax incentives for cloud and AI-led data centre investments would help attract greater investment into the sector while ensuring secure domestic data storage.
According to government estimates, investments in India's data centre sector are expected to exceed USD 200 billion (over Rs 18 lakh crore) this year.
Highlighting Airtel's infrastructure expansion, Mittal said the company has invested more than Rs 3.3 lakh crore over the past decade to build one of India's largest digital networks.
He noted that Airtel's 5G customer base has reached 188 million, with the company's 5G Plus network now carrying nearly half of its total wireless data traffic, reflecting the rapid adoption of next-generation mobile services across the country.