Amazon Internet Services is looking to strengthen its market position by providing cloud computing and allied services across government departments and Indian public sector companies through its AWS (Amazon Web Services) platform.

According to Rahul Sharma, President - Public Sector, India and South-Asia, Amazon Internet Services Pvt Ltd is looking to tap specific impact areas such as skilling, healthcare, livelihood and inclusion programmes.

It has already worked with State governments (through its partner network) in Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Maharashtra and on different citizen-centric governance schemes. Even the Centre’s common service centres are on the AWS cloud platform.

“We have seen good growth in India and it continues to be a focus area for us,” he told BusinessLine. Sharma did not share the India turnover or growth numbers.

Amazon has been engaging with the West Bengal government for quite some time.

In August last year, Amazon Internet Services signed an MoU with Webel (West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Ltd) to collaborate and develop cloud-ready skills. The company offered its ‘AWS Educate’ programme in institutes like IIT-Kharagpur, Jadavpur University, and West Bengal University of Technology.

On similar lines, it had signed an MoU for the ‘AWS Activate’ programme in February this year. The programme will help start-ups and entrepreneurs with the resources they need to get started on its platform. These include ‘promotional credit’ support, training, and special offers from select third-party companies.

“We will work with the micro, small and medium enterprises department of the WB government to identify impact areas and (handhold) specific start-ups there,” Sharma said.

Amazon is a major public cloud infrastructure provider and has been competing with the likes of Microsoft and Google.

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