Amazon to double offices in India, will boost hiring

Amazon is all set to double its number of offices in India over the next year in a bid to expand its business and increase the firm's production to meet more demand, which will give sturdy competition to local rival Flipkart.

The new offices in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai and the National Capital Region (NCR) will work for both domestic and global customers, the Times of India reported.

The US e-commerce giant plans to lease another 2.5 million square feet (sqft), besides its existing 3.1 million sqft, across the country and Hyderabad is expected to benefit the most from this expansion drive.

Amazon had said earlier this year it would open its biggest campus outside the US in Hyderabad by 2019, marking a major investment by the online retailer in Asia's third-largest economy.

Amazon's aggressive expansion strategies will very likely generate thousands of jobs for Indians. Once the company starts its 3 million sqft campus in Hyderabad, a major chunk of employees will get an opportunity to manage back-end operations of the online giant's various global businesses.

The facility will also have a technology development centre.

Amazon had last month said it would hire more than 1,000 Indian professionals to increase the workflow of the research and development (R&D) segment of the company. That cheered many professionals who were looking to upgrade their technical skills.

Is that enough job creation?

Employee opportunities have slowed down substantially in India, especially in the IT sector, as focus has shifted to mass automation. However, companies are swinging between layoffs and mass hiring, suggesting an unclear picture of employment picking up in future.

But if more companies expand their operations in future like Amazon is doing right now, employment in India will likely pick up. At present, one of the biggest challenges the Narendra Modi government is facing is unemployment.

Stepping into power in 2014, Modi had promised to fight unemployment and generate many jobs, a promise he has failed to fulfil. This might be his biggest problem in the upcoming elections.

Government think tank NITI Aayog had last month said not unemployment but a severe under-employment is the main problem staring India in the face.

"The more serious problem, instead, is severe underemployment," the Aayog said in the Action Agenda. "What is needed is the creation of high-productivity, high-wage jobs." 

According to the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), over 60 percent of the 800,000 engineering graduates India produces annually remain unemployed.