New Delhi: Making major investment announcements for small and medium businesses (SMB), Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos on Wednesday said that the 21st century will be the century of India.
Speaking at the Amazon Smbhav event here, Bezos announced that Amazon would invest $1 billion in digitising SMBs in the country.
He further said that the e-commerce major would use its global footprint to export Made in India goods worth $10 billion by 2025.
“I predict that 21st century is going to be the Indian century,” he said, adding that apart from the dynamism it has, India is a democracy which is a major characterstic of the country.
He also observed that in terms of alliances, the 21st century would be about the bilateral relations between the US and India.
Bezos’ visit to India comes at a crucial time as the Competition Commission of India has ordered an enquiry into the business practices of the e-commerce majors Amazon and Flipkart.
Praising Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos for his comment that 21st century will be Indias century, software major Infosys founder Narayana Murthy on Wednesday said the responsibility of making that prediction come true rests squarely on our shoulders.
“Nearly 85 per cent of India’s business output comes from the unorganized sector, about 10 per cent from SMBs and probably 5 per cent from large companies.
“Therefore, you do play an extremely important role in making 21st century as India’s century,” Murthy told the audience at the ‘Amazon Smbhav’ event here.
“The only way it can become India’s century is if the country becomes economically powerful, and the only way India can become economically powerful is if per capita revenue productivity goes up from current $2,000 or Rs 1,40,000 to somewhere three to four times, or ideally five times,” emphasized Murthy.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi has spoken about the $5 trillion economy. That task will be delivered by you. The most important thing that you have to do is to create an idea that your differentiated business value proposition is better than any of your competitors,” Murthy said.
Bezos spoke about innovation, experimentation and better level of excellence and execution.
Murthy said that innovation comes from the human mind.
“It comes from the power of the human mind. Therefore, you have to attract people who are smarter than you. People who will teach you, as Bezos pointed out, will teach you better things, not just in intellect, but even in values,” he emphasized.
Stressing upon the need for good work ethic and good values, he said: “You can’t become better unless your city becomes better, you can’t become better unless your town becomes better. Make this a better place for all of us.”
