World richest man Jeff Bezos, on the final day of his visit to India, has promised Amazon jobs will increase to over one million in India by 2025.
The company proposes to invest $1 billion into small businesses in India over the next five years, which it projects will generate more than 10 million local business online by 2025.
Amazon partners with thousands of kirana stores all over India as delivery points. It’s good for customers, and it helps the shop owners earn additional income. Got to visit one in Mumbai. Thank you, Amol, for letting me deliver a package. #MSME pic.twitter.com/VpoHUoJOIH
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 18, 2020
According to Bezos, the creation of these Amazon jobs would help manufacturers, resellers, shops, and brands in the Asian country.
Also, more than 550,000 sellers reportedly use the Amazon India marketplace, and more than 60,000 Indian manufacturers and brands export products to customers worldwide using the company’s platform.
While on a three-day trip to India, the Amazon boss has the week been meeting Indian small business owners and having met and greet with various Bollywood royalty at different corporate events.
He also laid a wreath at the Mahatma Gandhi memorial in Delhi. He participated in a youth forum in the country capital, where he flew kites with children, among many other activities.
India traders tiff with Amazon
Jeff Bezos visit to India sparked a protest by a union of small traders who claim to represent tens of millions of indigenous businesses in over 300 cities against him.
The union of traders accuses his company of predatory pricing in the state. They further complain that Amazon’s now six-year-old retail operation in the country is having an adverse effect on their businesses.
Praveen Khandelwal, leader of the Confederation of All India Traders, said the online giant is destroying the business of tens of thousands of small traders in India.
Also, India’s anti-trust regulator opened a formal investigation into the business practices of Amazon and its Indian competitor Flipkart, an Indian e-retailer, mostly owned by Walmart.
Amazon jobs support PM Modi’s HigherEd plans
The proposed one million Amazon jobs complement Prime Minister Modi’s plans vis-à-vis higher education.
Firstly, Amazon is investing in India’s technology and logistics networks and says the new positions will span areas such as IT, cloud computing, retail, and manufacturing.
Amazon is also linking its job creation plans to an ambitious goal of the Indian government to provide workplace training for more than 400 million people by 2022, saying it aims to hire more people into roles including software engineering, content production, and customer support.
While some students across India have expressed hope towards the promised support with the introduction of Amazon jobs, there were doubts among the academicians about the motives of PM Modi:
The game plan is exactly similar to what they have planned for JNU and other central universities and institutes. The agenda is to keep the financially weaker sections away from centres of excellence. You will have to then buy excellence at a price dictated by corporates. If your parents have the money, you will be lucky. Otherwise, you will have to take loans. We are going the American way. As of now, nearly half of our students come from economically backward sections. That constituency will cease to exist.
