Amazon opens its first Digital Kendra for MSMEs in Surat

Under its initiative to digitise MSMEs, Amazon India on July 8 launched its first Digital Kendra in Surat, Gujarat. Earlier in April, during Amazon Smbhav, its annual event for small and medium businesses, the company had announced the launch of the physical centre in the state.

“Gujarat is a manufacturing powerhouse of auto components textile, gems, jewellery, ceramics, and many other sectors and Surat is one of the key MSME hubs in the state. We have set up the first Amazon Digital Kendra at one of the most important clusters in the country,” said Amit Agarwal, Global Senior Vice President and Country Head, Amazon India.

Speaking during the virtual event, Agarwal said Gujarat is a key geography for Amazon India. “Today, more than 1 lakh sellers from the state, including artisans, weavers, local offline stores, sell to customers in different parts of the country,” he added.

The event was presided over by Vijay Rupani, the Chief Minister of Gujarat, and MK Das, Additional Chief Secretary, Port and Transportation and Additional Chief Secretary to the Chief Minister. It was also attended by Manish Tiwary, Vice President, Amazon India.

Amazon’s Digital Kendras are physical centres that will help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) in their digital transformation journey and enable them to sell online. It is a part of the company’s push to help bring 10 million small and medium businesses online in India, as committed by its founder and former CEO Jeff Bezos during the maiden Smbhav summit in 2020. Bezos had promised an investment of $1 billion for the purpose during the summit. He had also committed to $10 billion worth of exports from India by 2025.

According to Tiwary, 300,000 new sellers have been onboarded by Amazon since January 2020, and the company has also helped create nearly three lakh direct and indirect jobs since January 2020.

“We have also seen more than 50,000 neighbourhood stores or kirana stores who have joined our Local Shops on Amazon program,” he said during the virtual event.

Amazon India, he said, has already enabled over $3 billion in cumulative exports and already digitised about 2.5 million MSMEs in the country. “Though it took us the first few years to enable the first billion dollars of export. The second billion came in 18 months, and the third billion just took 12 months,” he said.