Amazon’s Ambitious Job Creation Plan in India
In a remarkable initiative, Amazon has announced its intention to facilitate the creation of one million job opportunities in India by 2030. This revelation was made during the Amazon Smbhav Summit in New Delhi, highlighting India’s pivotal role in the company’s long-term growth strategy, particularly in the context of recent global workforce reductions, which included the elimination of 14,000 positions.
The projected job openings will encompass a range of roles—direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal—spanning various sectors.
“By 2030, the company plans to generate an additional 1 million direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs,” stated Amazon in a blog post, emphasising its dedication to the evolving digital and manufacturing landscape of India.
This ambitious job commitment aligns with another crucial announcement: Amazon will invest over $35 billion (approximately ₹3.14 lakh crore) in its Indian operations by the year 2030.
This figure represents a significant addition to the nearly $40 billion that the tech giant has already invested in the Indian market since 2010.
This initiative comes on the heels of Microsoft’s recent declaration to invest ₹1.5 lakh crore in India, indicating a resurgence of confidence among global tech enterprises regarding India’s enduring potential.
Amazon has delineated its forthcoming investments around three primary pillars: AI-driven digitisation, enhancement of Indian exports, and job creation. These objectives are in strict alignment with Amazon’s ongoing commitment to support India’s digital transformation.
Over the years, the company has established a robust network of fulfilment centres, logistics facilities, payment systems, and cloud infrastructure, enabling millions of small businesses to thrive in the e-commerce arena.
During the summit, Keystone Strategy presented an economic impact report revealing that Amazon supported approximately 2.8 million direct, indirect, induced, and seasonal jobs in India in 2024.
Additionally, Amazon disclosed that its initiatives have significantly contributed to digitising over 12 million small enterprises, facilitating more than $20 billion in cumulative e-commerce exports from the country.
The projected one million new jobs by 2030 are expected to arise predominantly from Amazon’s expanding fulfilment and delivery capabilities, as well as related sectors such as manufacturing, packaging, transportation, and services.
These roles are anticipated to proliferate as an increasing number of sellers join Amazon’s marketplace, alongside a broadening of the company’s backend ecosystem.
Amit Agarwal, Senior Vice President for Emerging Markets at Amazon, articulated that the company’s vision for India is closely aligned with national development priorities.
“We are humbled to have been a part of India’s digital transformation journey over the past 15 years,” he remarked. Amazon also aims to democratize access to AI for millions of Indians, with aspirations to amplify cumulative e-commerce exports to $80 billion by 2030.
A significant component of this expansion will be driven by exports. Amazon Global Selling, which recently celebrated its ten-year milestone in India, has already enabled $20 billion in exports.
To further accelerate this process, Amazon has initiated the “Accelerate Exports” program, designed to connect sellers with manufacturers and support factories in accessing global markets.
This initiative will include onboarding drives in regional hubs such as Tirupur, Kanpur, and Surat, in partnership with the Apparel Export Promotion Council of India, to broaden its outreach.
Artificial intelligence will be integral to Amazon’s roadmap in India. By 2030, the company aims to empower 15 million small enterprises with AI tools, while also providing AI education and exposure opportunities to four million students in government schools through curriculum support, teacher training, and technological tours.
Interestingly, these ambitious plans for expansion in India emerge during a time of workforce reductions globally. In October, Amazon announced layoffs affecting approximately 14,000 employees as part of a restructuring process.
In a blog post, Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology, mentioned the necessity to operate more efficiently while redirecting investments toward generative AI and other long-term strategic priorities.
Source link: Thehansindia.com.
