Jeff Bezos says Amazon will invest $1 billion to digitise small, medium businesses in India

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos who is on a three-day visit to India addressed the Amazon SMBhav event for small and medium enterprises in Delhi on Wednesday. The CEO said that the company will invest $1 billion in digitising small and medium businesses. "We will invest $1 billion in digitising small and medium businesses and export $10 billion worth of 'Make In India' goods by 2025," he said.

Hailing India's democracy, Bezos said that the 21st century belongs to India. He added that India and the US - the world's largest and oldest democracies - would be the century's most important alliance.

"The dynamism, the energy... the growth. This country has something special and it's a democracy," Bezos said.

Bezos also spoke about the Blue Origin space project. He said that he hopes it would reduce the cost of access to space. "Our descendants will eventually move all heavy industries and manufacturing into this space. We need to use other resources in the solar system. We need space entrepreneurs. We want Blue Origin to reduce the cost of access to space," he said.

He said that dynamic and entrepreneurial civilisation in space is the need of the hours. Bezos said we need this so that two people in a dorm room can start a space company.

The CEO spoke about climate change and how a company the size of Amazon can contribute. He pledged to comply with the Paris Accord goals. Bezos said that the company will eliminate usage of plastic in deliveries in India by June 2020. "Amazon will be 100 per cent sustainable electricity user by 2030," he said. Those not acknowledging climate change as real, he added, 'is not being reasonable'.

Amazon has already ordered 1,000 electric delivery vehicles. It has also said that its pro-climate decisions would have "multiplier effect on associated companies".

Bezos reached India on Tuesday and visited Mahatma Gandhi's memorial. "Just landed in India and spent a beautiful afternoon paying my respects to someone who truly changed the world. "Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever." - Mahatma Gandhi," he tweeted.

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