Amazon would begin manufacturing devices in India as part of the 'Make in India’ and Atmanirbhar Bharat program.
Prime minister Narendra Modi launched the 'Make in India' campaign in September 2014, promoting India as the leading manufacturing destination. The campaign aims to facilitate investment, foster innovation, enhance skill development, protect intellectual property & build best-in-class manufacturing infrastructure in India.
Modi launched another campaign called 'Atmanirbhar Bharat', on May 12, 2020, intending to make India self-reliant in the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic.
On February 16, 2021, Amazon announced that it would manufacture its devices locally in India to reiterate the 'Make in India' campaign for an Atmanirbhar Bharat. The SVP (Global Senior Vice President) and Country Head of Amazon India announced the decision in a meeting with Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad (Minister of Communications, Electronics & Information Technology and Law & Justice).
The company would work along with Cloud Network Technology, a Foxconn subsidiary in Chennai. According to Amit Agarwal, Amazon has committed to partner with the government to go forward with the Aatmanirbhar Bharat. He added that the company guaranteed to invest $1 billion to digitize 10 million small and medium businesses across the country. Moreover, Amazon would help the Indian companies sell globally and enable $10 billion in cumulative exports.
Meanwhile, many media networks reported that the decision made by Amazon to produce devices locally in India is to cut the sources from China. However, Amazon decided to start manufacturing units locally in India to support the government's 'Make in India' campaign, but not to reduce sourcing from China or manufacturing in China.
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