Amazon is bringing Prime to India this year

If you've lived in constant envy of your NRI cousins in the US because they have Amazon Prime, it's time to stop -- Amazon, which turned 20 last week, is bringing Prime to India.

What is Prime ? It's a $99 a year membership program that gets you free two-day shipping on unlimited deliveries from Amazon on most items with no minimum order size, unlimited backup for your photos, access to streaming movies and music, free books from the Kindle Lending Library, and more. You might also get your orders delivered via drone at some point but we're not holding our breath.

There aren't any details about what exactly Prime members in India will get -- free two-day shipping is almost certainly coming -- but according to a report in the Economic Times, Amazon plans to include its Amazon Instant Video service and has started conversations with music labels and producers for sourcing content. Amazon has hired Nitesh Kripalani, a former Sony Entertainment executive to head its new initiatives in India. It is also planning to add a subscription-based e-commerce service -- no more worrying about whether you've run out of detergent or toothpaste every month.

Amazon is also planning to invest $5 billion in India, says the Times, and aims to make India its biggest market outside the US. This makes sense, because similar to its US business, Amazon's India operation is high on volume, low on margins.