Kolkata, July 15 -- Flipkart Group on Wednesday reaffirmed its long-term commitment to West Bengal after Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari met CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy, Chief Corporate Affairs Officer Rajneesh Kumar and the company's senior leadership to discuss fresh investments, employment generation and digital commerce.
The Chief Minister urged the company to deepen its engagement with farmers, artisans, MSMEs and food processing enterprises to create wider economic opportunities. Flipkart reiterated its commitment to partnering with the new BJP government to support entrepreneurship, employment and economic growth.
The meeting focused on strengthening West Bengal's role in India's digital economy and expanding collaboration between the state government and the Walmart-owned e-commerce company. Adhikari appreciated Flipkart's investments in the state, including its largest fulfilment centre in India, and acknowledged its contribution to employment generation, MSME growth and digital commerce.
Discussions covered expanding market access for farmers, supporting artisans and handloom clusters, promoting food processing, strengthening MSMEs, encouraging startups and innovation, enhancing youth skill development and creating more jobs.
The meeting follows Flipkart's announcement earlier this week that it will expand its supply chain infrastructure, seller ecosystem and skill development initiatives in West Bengal, in line with the state's industrial push.
Krishnamurthy recently said that Bengal has emerged as a key hub for digital commerce and will continue to play a pivotal role in Flipkart's growth, with investments in infrastructure and technology creating jobs, empowering MSMEs, supporting farmers and helping entrepreneurs access markets across India. He said the company remains committed to investing in the state's long-term growth.
Thus far, the company's existing footprint in Bengal was built during the previous Trinamool Congress government. Flipkart's Haringhata campus, its largest fulfilment centre in the country, has a storage capacity of five million cubic feet and is India's first e-commerce fulfilment centre of its scale to receive the Indian Green Building Council's Platinum certification.
The company operates more than 300 fulfilment centres, mother hubs and delivery facilities across the state, supporting over 1.2 lakh direct and indirect jobs, while Flipkart Minutes runs 90 micro-fulfilment centres employing nearly 10,000 people.
More than 66,000 sellers from Bengal use the platform, over 500 farmers supply fresh produce, and nearly 29,000 products from the state's artisans are listed under the Flipkart Samarth programme. In Shantipur, more than 250 Tant and Jamdani weavers generate annual sales exceeding Rs 100 crore through the platform.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.