Taking on its big investment plans in India and tossing them up with a touch of innovation Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Monday announced that the online retail giant is rolling out a fleet of electric rickshaws for delivery in India.
The step has been taken by Amazon to put its contribution to tackling climate change in India. Jeff took to Twitter to make the announcement of the e-rickshaw fleet. He shared a video with the caption ” Hey, India. We’re rolling out our new fleet of electric delivery rickshaws. Fully electric. Zero carbon”. The video shows the 2nd richest man in the world Jeff driving the rickshaw along with many others.
The move comes after Amazon announced an investment of $1 billion in India to “digitize” micro, small and medium enterprises. The CEO is on a visit to India and is looking to gain confidence of small traders in the country as the firm is facing an anti-trust investigation and protests from small traders across the country.
Jeff also announced (earlier) that “Amazon has partnered with thousands of Kirana (General) stores all over India as delivery points”. It’s good for customers, and it helps the shop owners earn additional income.
However, in spite of his efforts, Jeff has been facing a cold shoulder from the side of government with no minister from the central cabinet holding a meeting with him. To make this worse were the remarks of the union Commerce minister.
Minister of Commerce and Industry Piyush Goyal rebuked Bezos saying that his firm Amazon is not doing India “a great favor” by investing $1 billion in the country.” “They may have put in a billion dollars, but then, if they make a loss of a billion dollars every year, then they jolly well have to finance that billion dollars”, said the minister.
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So, it’s not as if they are doing a great favor to India when they invest a billion dollars,” said Goyal during a panel discussion at the Raisina Dialogue held here.
Inputs from The Indian Express
