Amazon To Test-Run Drone Deliveries In India First: Report

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), the world's largest ecommerce company, which has said it is experimenting with deliveries by drones, will try out the unmanned aerial vehicles in India first, The Economic Times, a daily business newspaper, reported on Thursday, citing unnamed sources.

The trials are likely to begin in the cities of Mumbai and Bangalore, where Amazon has warehouses, in late October when the Indian holiday-shopping season typically begins with the festival of Deepavali, the newspaper reported. The festival is the time when many Indians typically spend the most on shopping for their own families and for gifts.

Amazon announced its Prime Air delivery in December, which it said could fulfill some orders in just 30 minutes with the help of its ‘octocopters,’ which are drones fitted with eight rotor blades. In the U.S., the company is seeking an exemption from Federal Aviation Administration rules prohibiting the commercial use of drones.

Amazon recently announced a $2 billion investment in its operations in India, where it is challenging Flipkart, the country’s largest ecommerce business that said it has raised $1 billion in its latest round of funding.