Amazon’s CEO Jeff Bezos is India and one among the primary things he did was visit Mahatma Gandhi’s memorial in Delhi. And understandably, one among the primary things he did was post a video on Twitter of his visit. For obvious reasons, when the world’s richest man decided to pay his respects to the Mahatama, or in his words “someone who truly changed the world”, he decided to so wearing Indian traditional attire — white kurta and an orange half-jacket.
His tweet which captured it all showed the entire exchange. “Just landed in India and spent a gorgeous afternoon paying my respects to someone who truly changed the planet . “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to measure forever.” – Gandhi ,” he tweeted.
Just landed in India and spent a gorgeous afternoon paying my respects to someone who truly changed the planet . Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to measure forever.” – Gandhi
For the uninitiated, the person behind Amazon is here in India for a two-day flagship event being organised by the corporate for little and medium businesses. The event will kick-start in Delhi on Wednesday, and along the sidelines of the event, he’s expected to satisfy key leaders and policymakers, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
However, there are often a couple of troubles expecting Bezos while he’s here in India, and his trip might not just all be about wearing traditional Indian attire and meeting the most important leaders of the country. Instead, he could find yourself having to face difficult question by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) which is initiating an investigation into alleged competition law violations by Amazon Inc and Walmart-backed Flipkart.
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. pic.twitter.com/xDXAT9cBgf
— Jeff Bezos (@JeffBezos) January 14, 2020
In its order issued on Monday, the CCI said: “The Commission observes that the exclusive arrangements between smartphone/mobile phone brands and e-commerce platform/select sellers selling exclusively on either of the platforms, as demonstrated within the information, including the allegation of linkages between these preferred sellers and OPs (opposite parties) alleged by the Informant merits an investigation.
Änd the CCI is not the just one protesting. The country’s largest traders’ body, Confederation of Indian Traders (CAIT), has also decided to carry a civil disobedience at Jantar Mantar, Delhi, between 11:30 am to 12:30 pm on Wednesday against “predatory discount practices” of e-commerce companies like Amazon and Flipkart.
Value or no value
The broader take-away for e-tailers though is that the Modi government’s political interests line up well with the anger expressed by CAIT and other small traders, who are a crucial vote-bank for the Bharatiya Janata Party.
In October 2019, in an unusual public exchange, commerce minister Piyush Goyal and US commerce secretary Wilbur Ross clashed over why Amazon had reduced its investments in India.
At the time, news broke that the corporate had invested only Rs 2,800 crore in its India marketplace unit that year, which is roughly one-third of what it did in 2018 (Rs 9,450 crore).
While it’s possible that Amazon had front-loaded its investment for the country, thus entailing less cost from here on out, Ross believed that India’s new e-commerce policy was responsible .
In response, Goyal was blunt, noting the Centre was clear on its “domestic and political compulsions” with reference to small retailers. The commerce ministry wryly also acknowledged that perhaps Amazon recognised it cannot do things that it had been “possibly doing earlier”, during a pointed dig at the allegations of predatory pricing.
Some of the allegations around heavy discounting might be disparagement , but it’s clear that festival sales have drawn the ire of small traders the foremost . During Diwali in 2019, small trader associations claimed that they saw the maximum amount as a 60% drop by consumer good sales – mirroring the broader slowdown within the economy – whereas Amazon and Flipkart boasted about how that they had racked up record revenue during the six-day festival.
The seeds of the CCI investigation were sown some time past , with Goyal sternly noting at the time that “e-commerce companies haven’t any right to supply discounts or adopt predatory prices.”
“Selling products cheaper and resulting the retail sector to incur losses isn’t allowed,” the commerce minister said.
Company executives and even a couple of commerce ministry officials admit that Amazon may be a useful punching bag. Over the previous couple of years, the difficulty of ‘anti-national’ products being sold on its platform have cropped up variety of times.
In 2017, the web retail giant was forced to apologise and take away doormat products that contained a picture of the Indian flag after the-then external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj threatened diplomatic action.
A few weeks then , the-then economic affairs secretary Shaktikanta Das, who is now the governor of the Federal Reserve Bank of India, tweeted a stern warning against the American firm over how flip-flops were being sold that had pictures of Gandhi on them.
“Amazon, better behave. Desist from being flippant about Indian symbols & icons. Indifference are going to be at your own peril,” Das, tweeted in response to viral images of the $17 pair of footwear.
Coincidentally, Jeff Bezos’ first visit after he landed in Delhi on Tuesday evening was to pay tribute to Gandhi at the Raj Ghat Memorial located within the capital .
“Just landed in India and spent a gorgeous afternoon paying my respects to someone who truly changed the planet ,” Bezos posted on Twitter. “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to measure forever,” the tweet read, quoting Gandhi.
In response perhaps to the on-and-off protests by small trader associations over the previous couple of months, Bezos is predicted to attend Amazon’s two-day event in Delhi for little and medium businesses.
This articale taken refrence from india today and the wire