Dharamshala: The two online market giants, Amazon and Flipkart have shown interest in investing in Himachal. This was reflected by their representatives attending the Global Investors meet in Dharamshala on Thursday.
Amazon India today announced that it has signed four Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Government of Himachal Pradesh to enable sellers, MSMEs, artisans and weavers from the state to benefit through e-commerce.
The four MoUs signed include tie-ups with Himachal Pradesh State Handicrafts & Handloom Corporation Limited (HIMCRAFTS) and Himachal Pradesh State Handlooms & Handicrafts Development Cooperative Federation (HIMBUNKAR) to enable handlooms sellers and artisans to sell on Amazon.in.
As part of the MoU with HIMCRAFTS and HIMBUNKAR, Amazon India will educate, train & enable weavers and artisans to directly sell their products to Amazon customers across the country. The partnerships will further help elevate popular handloom products from clusters such as Manali, Sainj, Ropa and Sera which have tremendous potential and demand in urban areas.
The unique product portfolio will include shawls, pullan, footwear, jewellery, handicraft woven on handlooms as well as woodcraft, leather, embroidery, carpets of Tibetan pattern artistically stitched rumals and shawls of Chamba, decorative wooden pieces, grass shoes, Himachali caps, among others.
Amit Agarwal, SVP & Country Manager, Amazon India said,“We see a catalyst role for us in three key areas – jobs, MSME empowerment and Exports. Our four different MoUs signed with the Government of Himachal Pradesh will help us play a significant role in addressing those areas and empower the local community of women entrepreneurs, artisans and weavers, MSMEs and SMBs. We are excited that our efforts are meaningfully impacting the Digital Bharat vision and contributing to the economic flywheel of India.”
On the other hand Rajneesh, the Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, Flipkart said that “We are very happy to be here at ‘Rising Himachal’ investors’ summit. We appreciate government’s efforts to invite industry to be partners in progress.”
He added , “Flipkart is looking forward to get thousands of local businesses, MSMEs, local artisans, Women entrepreneurs from State of Himachal Pradesh to our e-commerce marketplace & Flipkart ‘Samarth’ program and connect them to the pan-India market with our more than 200 million & growing customer base. We are happy to be contributing to the economic growth in the State, supporting ‘Make in India’ and also create several thousands of new jobs as we continue our mission to democratise e-commerce in the country”.
Rajneesh said that Flipkart is signing MoU with state government.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
