NEW DELHI: Ecommerce giant Amazon announced on Monday that cumulative exports through Indian sellers has crossed the $2 billion milestone through its Amazon Global Selling programme. In January 2020, Amazon had pledged to enable $10 billion in cumulative exports by 2025.

Unveiling the third edition of the Amazon India ‘Exports Digest 2020’, MSME Minister Nitin Gadkari urged the help of the industry in uplifting the micro segment of MSMEs towards the mainstream. “The rural, tribal and agri sections of the economy need to be developed on a priority basis. 65% of our population belong to these areas. There are 115 aspirant districts where per capita income is very negligible. Goods exported from Indian MSMEs via the programme can be classified into micro, small and medium. My suggestion is to also make a separate category of handloom, handicrafts and particularly agro-MSMEs which are very important,” the minister said.

Gadkari highlighted that the MSME sector is a major job creator and the backbone of the Indian economy, contributing over 28% to India’s GDP and about 48% to the country’s exports. He said the vision is to increase their contribution to 60% to India’s exports within the next five years.

Reiterating the significance of exports in the revival of the economy, the minister drew attention to how the time now is to reduce production cost without compromising in any way on quality. He said that though our product quality is good, more expertise is needed in the domain of design and packaging. “There has to be special priority for upgradation of technology where the role of companies like Amazon can help to create awareness and product development. It can help to increase their turnover as well as be helpful for the Indian economy. It is a win win for both,” he added.

The minister also shed light on the role of the Khadi industry and the Village Industries Commission where the present turnover is Rs 88,000 crore. “The idea is take it up to Rs 5 lakh crore in the next 2 years. We are trying to develop those who are socially, educationally and economically backward. The focus is on agro-MSME, processing, handloom, bio-fuel and other industries. We have also increased the volume of budget for honey by 10 times,” he revealed.

Speaking further on the programme, Amit Agarwal, Senior VP and Country Head, Amazon India said that it has been rapidly boosting exports from India as well as helping build global Indian brands. “It took the programme three years to hit cumulative exports of $1 billion and it has grown 100% to hit the next $1 billion in less than 18 months, to cross the $2 billion milestone in cumulative exports from India.”

Amazon Global Selling enables more than 60,000 Indian exporters to sell millions of ‘Made in India’ products to customers worldwide through its 15 international websites in countries such as USA, UK, UAE, Canada, Mexico, Germany, Italy, France, Spain, Netherlands, Turkey, Brazil, Japan, Australia and Singapore. In 2019, more than 800 Indian MSMEs on the programme surpassed $131, 375 (Rs 1 crore) in e-commerce exports sales.

The third edition of Amazon’s annual Exports Digest provides insights into the success and scale of exports from India through the Amazon Global Selling programme, reflecting a significant increase in demand for Indian products across global markets and the growth of Indian exporters selling globally. Indian MSMEs are increasingly seeing e-commerce exports as an opportunity to grow their business. The number of exporters on Amazon has grown to over 60,000, with sellers joining from metros as well as tier 2 and tier 3 cities.

The programme was launched in 2015 with a few hundred sellers and today more than 60,000 exporters sell worldwide on 15 Amazon websites globally.