As part of its commitment to digitise 10 million MSMEs by 2025, Amazon India has announced the launch of its first Digital Kendra in Surat, Gujarat. The announcement was made at a virtual event organised by Amazon in presence of Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani.
The Digital Kendras will act as walk-in establishments that will provide MSMEs information about the benefits of e-commerce and help avail third-party services such as shipping and logistics support, cataloguing assistance, digital marketing services, GST and taxation support to start their digital journey.
Speaking at the launch, Amazon India Senior VP and Country Head Amit Agarwal said: “Gujarat is a manufacturing powerhouse of auto components textile, gems, jewellery, ceramics, and many other sectors and Surat is one of the key MSME hubs in the state. We have set up the first Amazon Digital Kendra at one of the most important clusters in the country”
In January 2020, former Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos had announced a USD 1 billion (over Rs 7,000 crore) investment in India to help bring small and medium businesses online and committed to exporting USD 10 billion worth of India-made goods by 2025.
The investment, he had said, would also be utilised to digitise 10 million micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and traders across India, including manufacturers, resellers, local offline shops, and brands.
As part of this effort, Amazon was to establish 100 digital centres throughout India.
“The first of our Digital Kendras is launching at Surat. Amazon Digital Kendra brings a host of services in one single place to help MSMEs kickstart their journey as digital entrepreneurs,” Agarwal said.
Amazon, which competes with players like Flipkart and Reliance Industries” JioMart, has been ramping up its efforts to expand the base of sellers on its marketplace.
Also Read: Telecom industry under tremendous stress; tariffs need to go up: Sunil Mittal
According to Amazon, it has cumulatively digitised 2.5 million MSMEs in India since its India foray in 2013. Moreover, the cumulative e-commerce exports by over 70,000 MSMEs via Amazon Global Selling stood at over $3 billion that helped churn out close to 1 million direct and indirect jobs in India, Amazon had said in April this year.
(with PTI inputs)
Pingback: NCML sets up public Silo storage facility in Haryana
Pingback: Spectators barred from Tokyo Olympic venues amid new covid emergency