India often a crucible, an idea generator: Amazon’s Russ Grandinetti

Global tech giant Amazon sees India as a testing ground for several global innovations, building and testing capabilities initially in the country before rolling out to other global markets like Europe, Japan, Brazil, and the US, says Russ Grandinetti, senior vice-president of international stores.

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In a conversation with Udisha Srivastav and Nivedita Mookerji, on the sidelines of Smbhay, the company’s annual summit for MSMEs, Grandinetti also speaks about the company’s quick-commerce push, geopolitical considerations, choice of data centre locations, and the path to profitability. Edited excerpts:Amazon has just announced its plan to invest $35 billion in India with artificial intelligence (AI) being a focus area. This comes a day after Microsoft's $17.5 billion commitment. Why is India so relevant for MNCs?

= India is the most populous country in the world. It’s not too far away from a time when it will be the third-largest economy. These things alone would be enough to justify the focus and interest in building our business here because the local market and opportunity are very large. There is a passionate vision for Viksit India, which means a lot of investment and change, but also opportunity. At a second level, there are so many things we often build here first, and then bring to other parts of the world. So, India is often a crucible, an idea generator in which we first build a capability, and then Amazon customers in Europe, Japan, Brazil, and the United States benefit from things we might build here first.

Is the $35 billion investment the biggest in Asia? Could you up it even more if required?