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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Another snub for Amazon in India, despite Bezos jobs pledge

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Another snub for Amazon in India, despite Bezos jobs pledge
Another snub for Amazon in India, despite Bezos jobs pledge

India's trade minister remains unimpressed with Amazon's $1 billion investment, as Jeff Bezos continues his charm offensive tour visit to the country.

Adam Reed reports.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos rubbing shoulders with Bollywood's best and brightest stars on his tour of India, but his plans to expand influence in the country haven't been met with enthusiasm by all.

Indian Trade Minister Piyush Goyal has been unimpressed with Amazon's announcement of a $1 billion dollar investment, saying the online delivery service hasn't done India any big favors.

(SOUNDBITE) (English) INDIAN TRADE MINISTER, PIYUSH GOYAL, SAYING: "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.

So it's not as if they're doing a great favor to India when they invest a billion dollars." Bezos announced the investment on Wednesday (January 15) saying it would bring small businesses online in the country, and would be adding to the $5.5 billion the company had committed since 2014.

That was followed on Friday by a proposal to create 1 million jobs in India by 2025.

But despite repeatedly reaching out for a meeting, three Reuters sources suggest Bezos is unlikely to have talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit, as he looks to allay antitrust concerns.

On Friday (January 17) Modi's ruling party took a swipe at the Bezos-owned Washington Post, saying there were problems with the paper's coverage of India.

Amazon did not respond to a request for comment.

Amazon and Walmart owned Flipkart are facing mounting criticism from India's brick-and-mortar retailers, which accuse the U.S. giants of violating Indian law by racking up billions of dollars of losses, to fund deep discounts and discriminating against small sellers.

The companies deny the allegations.

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