After snub, Bezos says will create 10 lakh new jobs in India
Mumbai, Jan 17 (IANS) A day after Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal snubbed him during a public event, Amazon Founder and CEO Jeff Bezos on Friday announced that the ecommerce giant will create 10 lakh new jobs in India by 2025 through continued investments in technology, infrastructure, and its logistics network.
The new expected jobs is on top of the 700,000 jobs Amazon has already created in the country since 2013 — thus totalling 1.7 million Amazon direct and indirect jobs by 2025, the company said in a statement.
“We are investing to create a million new jobs here in India over the next five years,” said Bezos.
“We’ve seen huge contributions from our employees, extraordinary creativity from the small businesses we’ve partnered with, and great enthusiasm from the customers who shop with us, and we are excited about what lies ahead,” he added in a statement.
On Thursday, Goyal not only ticked off Bezos saying that they are not doing India a favour by investing a billion dollars, but also raised concerns if its losses were a result of predatory pricing and if Amazon and Flipkart were gaining entry into multi-brand retail by using loopholes.
Speaking at the Raisina Dialogues here, Goyal tore into the MNC e-commerce players like Amazon and Flipkart, signalling a very strong government and policy intent to scrutinise their practices which traders and others have been protesting against.
More importantly, alluding to the $1 billion investment announced by Bezos in India, Goyal had a different take.
“(If) they have made a loss of a billion dollars then they jolly well have to finance the billion dollars. So, it is not as if they are doing a great favour to India when they invest a billion dollars,” the minister said.
On Wednesday, Bezos announced that the company plans to invest $1 billion to help bring 10 million traders and micro, small, and medium-sized businesses (MSMEs) across India online, enabling US $10 billion in cumulative exports by 2025 and supporting India’s economic diversification.
According to Amazon, the 10 lakh new jobs will be across industries, including information technology, Cloud computing, skill development, content creation, retail, logistics and manufacturing.
