Amazon.com Inc., an American multinational technology firm, is reportedly planning to develop its first manufacturing facility in India along with the Indian-based subsidiary of the Taiwanese electronics giant, Foxconn-owned Cloud Network Technology.
The recent development comes after the American online retail giant revealed its plans to invest around USD 1 billion in local Indian companies.
Sources with knowledge of the matter stated that the apparent collaboration is part of an attempt to work with the Government of India, which is set on a campaign to promote businesses to invest in the Indian economy to avoid barriers such as high import taxes.
For those unfamiliar, the Indian Government’s Aatmanirbhar Bharat initiative intends to make the country self-reliant by promoting local investment and growth among local companies.
Ravi Shankar Prasad, India’s Minister of Law and Justice of India reportedly stated that the government has accepted Amazon’s decision to introduce a new manufacturing line in Chennai, as it would be beneficial in creating jobs and improving the domestic production capabilities.
According to Amazon, the Chennai facility will be able to manufacture abundant devices per year, beginning with the Fire TV devices. The tech giant said that it will continually assess scaling the facility’s capacity to additional cities/marketplaces depending on the domestic demand.
Global Senior Vice President of Amazon India, Amit Agarwal, mentioned that the firm is determined to join hands with the Indian government to contribute towards the vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat. He further added that the company intends to invest USD 1 billion to digitize 10 million small and medium businesses, helping them sell globally, thus creating about 1 million jobs by 2025.
Amazon's strong investment in India indicates the country’s growing importance as both a manufacturing center that can compete with China as well as emerging as a prime market for Western consumer electronics, sources claimed.
Source Credit –
https://www.theverge.com/2021/2/16/22286059/amazon-fire-tv-india-manufacturing-line-partner-foxconn