Focus for India should be on removing friction and bottlenecks, says Amazon's Amit Agarwal

Amit Agarwal, Country Manager, Amazon India on Wednesday said the focus for India should be on "removing friction and bottlenecks". Speaking at the 14th India Digital Summit organised by the Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Amit added that the target of $1 trillion digital economy is not far-fetched for a country that is seen as a digital powerhouse.

He said, "A lot can be achieved by focussing on removing friction, and there will be more attention in enabling this space for successful entrepreneurs."

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Agarwal further said a razor-sharp focus on skilling, grassroot entrepreneurship, driving equal opportunity through greater women's participation, as well as artificial intelligence backed solutions, and said a multi-pronged approach can enable India to meet its target of $5 trillion economy.

He exuded confidence that bold reforms of the last few years and India's rising tech clout globally backed by the success of Aadhaar, UPI, and other initiatives will help the country scale new highs.

At the Union Budget, this year, a one percent TDS on e-commerce transactions was announced. To this Amit Agarwal commented saying that although the move may seem like a harmless 'papercut', it could impact the working capital of small businesses.

Another highlight of the event was the launch of a report titled, ‘Intelligent Automation - A Key Catalyst for India’s Economic Growth’ by Aruna Sundararajan, Former Telecom Secretary and Chairman of the Telecom Commission.

Aruna said, "Investment is the next driver of growth. As the digital footprints in India grow across sectors, it will help in benefiting several of India’s fastest-growing companies from intelligent automation."

The report examined the economic impact of automation and found that large-scale adoption of automation technologies such as Robotic Process Automation (RPA), artificial intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning will drive increased efficiencies and new jobs, resulting in economic growth in the next few years.

According to the report, automation is driving intrinsic growth in every sector of the Indian economy, and is influencing every activity of the workforce by creating high-skilled jobs, resulting in more opportunities for workers and higher economic output.

As per a report by ‘Automation Anywhere’ and IAMAI, intelligent automation will catapult the Indian economy to $5 trillion in the next five years, up from $2.7 trillion.

(Edited by Suman Singh)

Disclaimer : This copy was updated with additional inputs.

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