Amazon India Starts Local Manufacturing in Chennai Reducing China Sourcing

By – Ashwathy Nair

Reducing dependence on China would give a leg up to the government’s Make-in-India push.
Amazon was sourcing its Fire TV Stick from China & Taiwan for the Indian market.
Amazon will consider scaling up manufacturing capacity based on domestic demand.

Amazon India will be starting with local manufacturing of its devices by turning down its dependence on China. This would be giving a boost to the government’s Make-in-India scheme. The e-commerce major will be working with Foxconn’s subsidiary Cloud Network Technology in Chennai for making its Fire TV Stick, which helps in streaming on smart TVs.

The facility of Chennai is expected to be in operation later this year. Amazon was mainly sourcing its Fire TV Stick from China and Taiwan for the India market. In a blog post, Amazon India stated that the company is looking to make lakhs of devices every year in India and the company will be considering to scale up manufacturing capacity based on domestic demand.

To start with Fire TV Stick

Popular devices of Amazon include Fire TV Stick, Smart Speakers Echo, and e-book Kindle.
Under Amazon, it also sells products that are largely made in China.
The US e-commerce giant will be making Fire TV Stick in India and it may be manufacturing other devices as well based on local demand.
Desi companies such as eyewear firm – Lenskart and Earphones maker – boAt are also looking forward to manufacturing locally.

Recently, the Indian government introduced production-linked incentives (PLIs) for numerous electronic products. On Tuesday, the head of Amazon India, Amit Agarwal tweeted that “This further reiterates our commitment to ‘Make in India’ by contributing directly to the local economy, creating jobs along with boosting Indian innovation.”

“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the manufacturing of electronics in India has recently attracted a lot of the biggest investments from global giants. It is a proud moment that Amazon India is the latest in joining the success story of India.”

In a series of tweets, Prasad also came up with urging Amazon to help taking products that are made by local artisans as well as ayurvedic products globally through its e-commerce platform. Amazon India, last month had announced that it is setting up an accelerator programme that will be aiming at building and boosting exports of locally made consumer brands globally.

The CEO of Amazon Jeff Bezos had announced that the company is willing to create a total of 1 million jobs by the year 2025.