 "Manish Tiwary, vice-president and India Manager of Amazon, underscores the company’s commitment to job creation, digitisation of stores, and prioritisation of exports from India (Photo: Kamlesh Pednekar)")
There is no better country than India for any company operating in the technology sector, said Manish Tiwary, vice-president and India manager at Amazon, on Thursday.
“For any company in the technology space, there is no better resource pool than India. We have more than 100,000 employees in India, making it the second-largest country for Amazon in terms of the number of employees, after the US,” he said at the Business Standard Manthan event.
India is the second-largest market for the e-commerce major in terms of the number of employees, only behind the US. Amazon is doubling down on its job creation efforts in the country.
Tiwary highlighted that the Indian market is a significant focus in the company’s board meetings due to its large size, ‘outstanding’ demographics, macroeconomic green shoots, and the ability to easily adopt technology.
“We had an Amazon Global board meeting in November. There was so much excitement around India…I can’t think of any other country which is better poised, and I wouldn’t be surprised if we hit developed status before 2047,” he said.
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According to Tiwary, Amazon is focusing on a three-pronged plan for job creation in India, which includes a focus on digitising 10 million stores and creating around 2 million total jobs — they are currently at the 1.3 million mark.
Tiwary mentioned that Amazon is prioritising exports from India. The company recently announced that it had surpassed $8 billion in cumulative exports from India in 2023 and is on track to achieve its target of $20 billion in exports by 2025, having achieved $5 billion worth of exports in 2022.
Discussing the biggest learning curves for the e-commerce major in India, Tiwary said that solutions developed for India were applicable worldwide. He highlighted the talent to innovate with frugality and the country's role as a source of ideas on the global platform as key takeaways.
On the regulatory arena, Tiwary said they were “in a weirdly sweet spot” right now.
“I would want the current vectors to continue for the next decade or so…We can see the buoyancy and the consumption in the Indian market. We are still early in the China Plus one journey, and we need that stability for the next ten years, be it in manufacturing, services, or any other sector,” he said.
Tiwary added that the current competitive landscape is not a cause for concern due to the under-penetration of e-commerce.
“If you look at e-commerce, the penetration is around 1-2 per cent. Fashion is 0.5 per cent. You start worrying about competition when the penetration is around 98 per cent. More players will help the ecosystem get better. We have a long way to go before we worry about competition,” he said.
However, Amazon is betting big on continued innovation.
When asked about competition from the quick-commerce sector, led by companies like Blinkit, Zepto, and Swiggy’s Instamart, Tiwary said: “We always say that any business idea which has legs and works backward from customer interaction to develop new ideas, we would be exploring. We are a company of builders. We keep trying to do new things.”
Answering a question on counterfeit products on the platform, Tiwary emphasised that technology is the answer.
“Our philosophy is we want it easy for the sellers to sell. What we do through technology is identify gap areas through millions of feedback and ratings every day. It will never be perfect,” he said.
