I find India energising, says Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has arrived slap bang in the middle of India's festive season and true to form, he has jumpstarted a discount war. All around Delhi, a hoarding war has broken out with customer obsessed Amazon baiting the home grown avatars of e-tailing with their discounting strategy - why have a one-day dhamaka (sensation) when sales can happen every day?

On his first visit to India, Bezos with his loud throaty chuckle is now waiting to meet the PM "I am completely at his disposal, he (Narendra Modi) has a fantastic international reputation. I am super excited to meet him."

An admirer of India's successful and cost effective Mars Mission, Bezos who himself is fascinated with space from the time he saw Neil Armstrong walk on the moon as a five year old, he would like to collaborate with Indian space scientists if he is allowed to. Charged about his visit, he said, "I find India super energising. I get here and people are very energetic and energising. They are inventive and entrepreneurial. It is fun and exciting."

Bezos, a hedge fund manager wrote his Amazon (named after the river) plan, originally called Cadabra.com (changed because it sounded like cadaver), in his father's car driven most of the time by his wife McKenzie as he traversed the United States managed to convince 20 out of 60 investors to pledge $50,000 each as he made them understand the power of the internet in 1994.

The disbelievers must be regretting what Bezos has unleashed. He had left his "well-paying job" at a New York City hedge fund D E Shaw when he "learned about the rapid growth in Internet use", which coincided with a "then new US Supreme Court ruling [that] online retailers [would not] have to collect sales taxes in states where they lack a physical presence"; he had headed to Washington because its relatively small population meant fewer of his future customers would have to pay sales tax.

The germinator of this idea and since then many more is a notorious micro manager and a happy go lucky mogul.

In 2000, the boy who was besotted with Star Trek launched the secretive Blue Origin - a human space flight start up and last year pouched Washington Post for $250 million in cash, He devotes time to all his ventures and as he said, "If it is not physically possible, then I am on the phone talking nineteen to dozen."

A late entrant in India - June 2013 - Bezos is now making up for lost time as he commits $2 billion to bump up logistics and back office in India.

EXCERPTS FROM THE CONVERSATION WITH MAIL TODAY

>> On Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi

He has a fantastic international reputation. He seems practical and focused. I am going to meet him towards the end of this week. I am going to be at his disposal to talk anything he wants to talk about. I am super excited to meet him.

>> On enlarging scope and size of relations between India and the United States of America

Scope of our (Indo-US) relationship is pretty big already. Amazon, for example, has been doing thing in India for last ten years now. We started with a software development centre at Bangalore. A year ago we launched Amazon India and it has grown beyond our wildest dream already in just one year. We are investing more in it so there is a lot going on.

>> On Amazon's entry in June 2013

I am hopeful our timing was exactly right. Based on the results I have seen, this team in India is doing such a great job. It is the fastest geographic launch we have ever had at Amazon.

>> On current market place with competition from homegrown e-commerce enterprises

We are relying incredibly on Small and Medium (S&M) enterprises and our team is building tools to facilitate S&M business's to get their products to customers and make it easy for them to get on the whole digital eco-system. We are taking advantage of the mobile eco system.

>> On mobile phones driving e-commerce in future

Part of what we are going to do is to continue investing in mobile applications so as to make it easier for people to buy and purchase from their mobile phones. There are high-end mobile phones which are capable. But low-end mobile phones need more special apps so we are working on all that and investing on mobile devices.

>> On focus of investment being mobile platforms

That is a big piece of it but also some of that investment is gonna go in infrastructure, transport, and logistics to fulfillment new centers.

>> On physical shops, e-commerce and what happens two years from now

I think they will co-exist. There are things you can do online but you can never do in physical shops but also there are things you can do at physical shops but not online. Tie-ups, perhaps, could be a way forward. Perhaps a new equilibrium will come over time.

>> On the secretive Blue Origin

Blue Origin was a childhood dream. When I was 5-year-old I was imprinted with love for space and space travel. Space travel is... Except it is too expensive and dangerous. Blue Origin's long term vision is millions of people living and working in space and to make that happen we have to take it step by step to make it less expensive and safer. I like to say that we talk about things after we have done them. It is just a personal preference... I don't know. May be. There are certain assets that could aide each other. I haven't spent any time thinking about that

>> On India's Mars Mission

I would like to congratulate everyone in India on the success of Mars mission. The more you know about the space the more you are impressed because it is a shocking accomplishment.

>> On acquiring Washington Post (WP)

I became good friends with Don Graham, the owner of WP. Don convinced me they have a great executive team which knows newspaper business. They needed somebody who understood internet and technology so that is how it happened.

>> His advice to people

I followed my passions. My earnest advice to anyone is to figure out what your passion is and follow them.