Amazon Says It’s On Pace To Meet India Growth Pledge

Amazon said it is “on track” to meet sweeping targets for growth in India that the company announced in January 2020, according to a Thursday (April 8) press release.

The company said it has “digitized 2.5 million MSMEs, enabled cumulative exports worth $3 billion and helped create nearly 1 million jobs in India (to) date.”

At a January 2020 event called the Smbhav Summit, the company said it was spending $1 billion to “digitally enable 10 million MSMEs, enable ecommerce exports worth $10 billion and create 1 million additional jobs in India between 2020 and 2025.”

“As we continue to work with small and medium businesses in our ecosystem, we remain committed to bringing new tools, technology and innovation that will unleash the entrepreneurial spirit of Indian businesses, boost exports from the country, help create jobs at scale and contribute to the vision of an Aatmanirbhar Bharat,” Global Senior Vice President and Country Head of Amazon India Amit Agarwal said in a prepared statement. “As the world around us is more digital than ever with the internet and technology becoming an integral part of our lives, we see a massive opportunity to empower millions of SMBs across the country and remain committed for Amazon to be a catalyst for such accelerated progress.”

The expression “Aatmanirbhar Bharat” in Hindi has been used in political circles to mean, in English, “a self-reliant India.”

Amazon also said in Thursday’s announcement that since January 2020 it has added more than 250,000 small and medium-sized business (SMB) sellers in India. The eCommerce giant said companies can register not only in Hindi, but also in Tamil, Marathi and Kannada and that 75,000 sellers have registered using regional languages. Hindi is spoken across India, but Tamil, Marathi and Kannada are used for the most part in specific geographic areas.

Amazon said it has facilitated exports from India due to “strong demand from global customers for a range of Made in India products including STEM toys, jewelry, bed linen, healthcare products, tea, leather products and others.”