Agarwal was accompanied for the meeting by Monique Meche, Amazon's vice president for international public policy. In an emailed response to ET's query, Amazon said that it is "looking for ways to deepen" its relationship with the Indian postal service which started last year. It currently uses the Indian postal services as a delivery channel, but it is looking to deepen this further, in line with what Alibaba did in China
Alibaba was the first e-commerce company to tie-up with a government postal agency in China. Right before it hit the capital markets with a multi-billion dollar issue, Alibaba tied up with China Post to share warehouses, processing centres and delivery resources, all part of a smart logistics network providing easier and faster delivery services to online sellers. Prasad also discussed prospects for pushing trade and commerce in rural parts of the country in a big way and how e-commerce websites such as Amazon could play a big part in giving a platform to small-time retailers and entrepreneurs in the hinterland through its market place models.
Interestingly, Amazon's proposal comes in the wake of the special task force constituted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in October to enhance the role of India Posts in financial inclusion and trade. The committee headed by former cabinet secretary TSR Subramanian will submit its report by the year end. India Post had also tried to get a banking licence but had failed, and is now looking to become a 'payment bank', one which can accept deposits and remittances but cannot lend
"The government would obviously review any proposals made by Amazon under the light of the recommendations made," the second official said. On a lighter note at the meeting, Prasad referred to Amazon's arch-rival, homegrown e-commerce major Flipkart, and asked Agarwal who would win the e-commerce war between the two majors in India. "The consumer," Agarwal responded.
Surging growth of the e-commerce sector in India has led to a fund-raising spree by companies in the sector. Most recent being Japan's Softbank Corporation's $627-million investment in Snapdeal, which was preceded by $1-billion fund raising by Flipkart. A day after Flipkart concluded its fund raising, Amazon committed investment of $2 billion in India. In the meeting, Agarwal further discussed setting up of a data centre in India for which the company readily agreed to put up a server. Microsoft was the first technology giant this year to announce the setting up of three data centres in the country
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