I have been fortunate and lucky to be a part of the journey at Amazon since the last 5 years and have seen our Operations network grow multifold. At Amazon, we take pride in ensuring safe and fast deliveries that delight customers, and our operations network enables that at every step. I still hear so many of my colleagues remembering about the opening of the first Fulfilment Center in Mumbai so fondly– and today 8 years later we already have more than 60 Fulfilment Centers across the country, Sortation Centers in 19 states, more than 1700 Amazon owned and delivery partner stations and 25 Amazon Fresh Centers. This enables us to meet our customer promises across the country everyday. Today, Amazon delivers to 100% serviceable pin codes in India across states and towns such as Champhai, Kolasib, Lumding to the islands of Andaman and Nicobar. What customers have come to love the most is the reliability and speed of Amazon deliveries which has improved year on year with same day and next day deliveries with offerings such as Prime in many pin codes.

Job opportunities and programs launched

I’m also extremely proud of the job opportunities we have created and programs we have launched over the years that support small and medium businesses and have created earning opportunities for thousands of individuals across the country. The I Have Space program where we work with local kirana and mom and pop stores is a great example. We have innovated across multiple fronts, and I’m especially proud of our initiatives across environmental sustainability such as Packaging Free Shipping, elimination of 100% single use plastic from packaging originating from our FCs and all the work we have done on renewable energy such as the installation of solar rooftops across many of our FCs and Sort Centers.

Serving the people of India in unprecedented times

Most recently, what has stood out for me is that all the hard work over the last 8 years, the infrastructure we have built, technology enablement and people we have got on board all came together to be able to serve the people of India in the most unprecedented time we have seen in our lives. Through the last one year, as we are navigating through the pandemic. Amazon India has been serving customers across the country to ensure they stay at home and stay safe. The reason we have been able to do this, first and foremost is because of our front line teams who have braved the pandemic to serve customers. I continue to be extremely thankful and in awe of the thousands of team members in our Fulfilment Centers, Sortation Centers and those delivering to customers every day!

The second wave of COVID in India has been harsher than anyone could have imagined. And at this time too, the Operations team utilized its resources and infrastructure to serve the people of the country. With Project Vayu, backed by our global and domestic logistics network, we have enabled cross border movement of urgent medical supplies and equipment both globally and within the country, helping organizations and NGOs to move these swiftly into India. We also extended our Transportation network in India to other organizations to manage domestic movement of COVID-19 relief supplies to those that need them the most. This provided much needed speed and reliability to NGOs partners and other organizations for the transportation of their donations.

I can confidently say that we are just getting started, and we look forward to delivering many more smiles in the future.