Amazon is going to hire 50,000 seasonal workers (on a temporary basis) to meet the increased demand in India, the e-commerce giant has said. "We want to continue helping customers all over India get everything they need so they can continue to practice social distancing," the company's senior executive Akhil Saxena wrote in Amazon's official blog.

Confirming the news, Amit Agarwal, the company's Senior VP, tweeted, "We are opening close to 50,000 seasonal roles across our operations network to meet the surge in demand and to provide critical service in this difficult time. We are committed to creating as many job opportunities while providing a safe working environment. I thank Prime Minister's Office and Piyush Goyal (Commerce Minister) for enabling us to contribute towards the revival of livelihood of thousands of people and also for allowing us to help serve people who rely on us for safe delivery of products that are important to them."

The temporary staff will be delegated to fulfillment centers and towards beefing up the delivery network of Amazon.

Amazon's plan, before the pandemic happened, was to create 1 million jobs in India by 2025.