Amazon chief Jeff Bezos on Wednesday predicted that the 21st century was going to be “the Indian century”, BloombergQuint reported.
Bezos, who arrived in India on Tuesday to meet senior government officials and business leaders, said the e-commerce giant would invest $1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) to digitise small and medium businesses in India. The company would use its global footprint to export $10 billion worth of “Make In India” products by 2025, PTI reported. “In this 21st century, the most important alliance is going to be the U.S.-India alliance,” he added. The billionaire businessman also announced that Amazon aims to make delivery of all its products in India plastic-free by June, reported Mint.
Bezos made the remarks at the Amazon SMBhav summit in New Delhi. The summit will focus on using technology to help small and medium businesses, or SMBs, in India thrive. His announcements about investing in India came two days after the Competition Commission of India ordered an investigation into alleged violations of competition law by Amazon and Flipkart, which is owned by Walmart, The Times of India reported. The retail giants have been accused by small and medium businesses of unfair trade practices, including use of deep discounts, exclusive launch of mobile phones, and giving preference to select sellers to capture market share.
After arriving in India on Tuesday, the Amazon chief had visited Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial at Raj Ghat in New Delhi. “Just landed in India and spent a beautiful afternoon paying my respects to someone who truly changed the world,” he tweeted.
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