Microsoft is building a data center in a tiny Indian village. Locals allege it’s dumping industrial waste.

“These big companies think they can enter small villages like ours, take our land, and destroy it.”

• Microsoft is building a data center in Mekaguda, a village in the southern Indian state of Telangana, which is expected to start operations by 2025. About 70% of the construction has been completed.
• Last month, the state government intervened after Microsoft cited problems with the local village council.
• A group of local residents has filed a petition against Microsoft, claiming encroachment and the dumping of industrial waste in a nearby body of water. The court hearing for the petition is pending.