Amit Agarwal, Senior VP and Country Manager, Amazon has been appointed as the new Chairman of Internet and Mobile Association of India (IAMAI). 

IAMAI, a non-profit organization founded in 2004, represents e-commerce businesses and services in India to investors, stakeholders, government, and consumers. Their responsibilities include policy advocacy, encouraging people to use the internet and promoting the Indian internet ecosystem. They also help the government leverage digital platforms to enable them to become more efficient in their governing processes and development.

Joining the council with Agarwal are Dhruv Shringi, CEO, Yatra as Vice-Chairman and Satyan Gajwani, Vice-Chairman, Times Internet as Treasurer. Subho Ray continues as the President of the association. The new council has been appointed for a tenure of two years.

The former council of IAMAI was headed by Rajan Anandan, Former Southeast Asia and India Vice-President, Google as Chairman and Deep Kalra, Founder, MakeMyTrip as Vice-Chairman. 

An alum of IIT-Kanpur and Stanford University, Amit Agarwal has been with Amazon for nearly two decades.

Speaking about his new appointment Agarwal shared, “I am excited that we are coming together as an industry to help truly harness the potential of the internet and emerging technologies such as AI in addressing India-specific problems at scale."

With e-commerce giants like Amazon and Flipkart pushing back on new government policies requiring them to rollback on heavy discount offers and unauthorizing them from owning their inventory and promoting their brand, the new appointments might just be the respite online businesses have been hoping for. With the council now headed by Amazon's India Head, they are more likely to have an opportunity to pitch favourable e-commerce policies. 

With a vision to address India-specific problems using AI and other emerging technologies and combining Agarwal’s two decades worth of e-commerce expertise with Dhruv Shringi’s entrepreneurial expertise, the new council seems to have the potential to shape the future of the digital landscape in India. 

Image Credits: economic.indiatimes.com