The global consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers is foraying into custom-made software and IT implementation services to tap the booming organised retail industry in India.
In October, media reports suggested that the World's largest retailer Wal-Mart made "suspicious payments" totalling millions of dollars to local officials in India.
Global retail giant Wal-Mart is in talks with several domestic textile firms for its Indian operation, which is expected to begin next year
With confidence creeping back into the market place and rentals down up to 50 per cent, large retailers are back to drawing up aggressive growth plans. In the next one year, Aditya Birla Retail, Bharti Enterprises, Reliance Retail, Trent, Mahindra Retail and others hope to open new stores spread over five million square feet.
The two JV partners have undertaken an empowerment initiative for Indian women entrepreneurs, having set a target of impacting the lives of 25,000 women by 2016. They have also said they will substantially increase sourcing from women-owned businesses in India.
The way the story went, customers would get dramatically lower prices for everyday groceries (something that takes up 45 per cent of the household budget) and farmers would earn at least a third or more as big retailers began procuring from them directly. But none of this has really happened, and may not either.
It's certainly not the way the world' s largest retailer would have wanted to enter India. But it's nonetheless a turning point for the Indian retail market.
Walmart's JV with Bharti hinges on policy clarity
Coca-Cola and PepsiCo have already announced plans to enter the milk-based beverages segment in the country. Reliance Retail, which has entered the diary segment with Dairy Pure, its milk brand, may also expand into niche categories. Industry observers believe that Bharti Retail may also be working its way towards marking an entry into the dairy space.
Rejecting the demand of global retailers like Walmart, the government on Wednesday said there is no plan to relax the mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing norms for foreign players in the multi-brand retail sector.
Telecom major Bharti and world's biggest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc on Monday signed an agreement to form a joint venture for their wholesale cash and carry business.
The sale of Nature's Basket, Godrej's chain of food stores in west India, is the second exit by a big group in a year in the category
Capital expenditure by Indian companies is likely to see an uptick in the upcoming quarters as capacity utilisation has surpassed the critical threshold of 75 per cent, and numerous companies have deleveraged their balance sheets, according to analysts. The first quarter of the current financial year has shown improved profitability, driven by a decrease in input prices. This, according to analysts at Care Ratings, should stimulate a revival in the private capex cycle.
RBI's exercise will take into account standards of governance, the viability of the payment bank (PB) business model, and changes, if any, if needed.
Walmart is happy with its current partnership with Bharti.
Sellers, especially the smaller ones, are planning to go to court as well as move CCI as they fear that Walmart could bring multiple private labels in India and flood the e-commerce platform with its own products.
Sources estimated the number of employees asked to leave because of downsizing stands at about 100.
"We have examined the Bharti-Wal-Mart joint venture and everything is in conformity with the existing policy on FDI in retail," high-level sources in the commerce and industry ministry said.
Retail investors shunned the Bharti Infratel initial public offering.
American retail major Walmart has snapped ties with Indian partner Bharti but its plans to enter the country's multi-brand retail space appears intact.
The move is likely to hit Bharti-Walmart, the 50:50 joint venture between the US' Walmart and Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Group that operates cash-and-carry outlets in India, the most.
Former Walmart India head Raj Jain has been roped in as an advisor by the Bharti Group, which on Wednesday parted ways with the US retail giant to operate stores independently in India.
While Bharti's retail stores will be fully Indian, they will be able to take advantage of the tremendously low prices and technology advantages that Wal-Mart will bring to Mittal-Mart's sourcing.
Coming under flak by the Left parties for Wal-Mart's entry into the Indian retail market, Bharti Enterprises on Friday said its tie-up with the US firm was "as per the guidelines".
The potential of India's retail sector may be huge and growing, but soaring rentals, salaries and interest rates could make the journey a bumpy ride for retailers in the near term.
Bharti Wal-Mart Pvt Ltd, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and retail giant Wal-Mart, opened its first cash-and-carry (wholesale) store in India at Amritsar.
The Union Cabinet in its decision of November 24, which has since been put on hold, permitted 51 per cent FDI in the multi-brand retail, well above expectations of the Walmart and its Indian joint venture partner -- Bharti Group.
Profit taking in Bajaj Finance, Nestle, Kotak Bank, SBI, Bharti Airtel L&T and Asian Paints also weighed on the benchmark index. Maruti bucked the trend by gaining 1.73 per cent after strong retails sales in September. Power Grid, M&M. JSW Steel and Tata Steel also advanced.
She said that she had apprised BJP president Nitin Gadkari of her plan of action.
Asking the government to tweak FDI norms in multi-brand segment, retailers said sourcing rules must be made similar to that of single brand while demanding foreign firms be allowed to put only 50 per cent of first tranche of investment in back-end infrastructure.
From the Sensex pack, ITC, Titan, Asian Paints, Reliance, Tata Steel, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys, Bajaj Finance, Nestle and ICICI Bank were the major gainers. Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, HCL Technologies, State Bank of India, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors were among the laggards.
Middle-class Indian consumers should, of course, sit back and watch the action on the shop floor.
Reliance Industries Ltd was the biggest wealth creator during the five-year period from 2018 to 2023 while Adani Enterprises Ltd was the top all-round wealth creator, according to a study by Motilal Oswal Financial Services. The study, based on stock market performance of companies, said for the fifth time in succession, Reliance emerged as the largest wealth creator, adding Rs 9,63,800 crore wealth over 2018-23. It was followed by Tata Consultancy Services (Rs 6,77,400 crore wealth addition), ICICI Bank (Rs 4,15,500 crore), Infosys (Rs 3,61,800 crore) and Bharti Airtel (Rs 2,80,800 crore).
In a letter dated November 30, the PMO asked the commerce ministry to prepare a detailed note on the venture, in the anticipation that it would come up for discussion in Parliament.
After a five-day long visit, Apple CEO Tim Cook left India with a note that he can't wait to return to the country. The visit of Cook coincided with 25 years of the iPhone maker's presence in India. Cook arrived in India on Monday. The visit started with the launch of the first official Apple store in Mumbai on April 18 followed by a second in the national capital on April 20.
Bharti Teletech on Tuesday launched an SMS phone that enables sending and receiving short messaging service (SMS) from fixed-line phones.\n\n
Reliance Retail, already creating ripples in the organised domestic retail market, is poised to acquire smaller rivals in order to take on serious competition from the likes of Bharti-Wal-Mart combine.
From the Sensex pack, Bharti Airtel, HDFC Bank, Titan, UltraTech Cement, ITC, Sun Pharma, Bajaj Finserv, Bajaj Finance, Hindustan Unilever and Kotak Mahindra Bank were among the major gainers. Tata Steel, Axis Bank, NTPC, ICICI Bank and IndusInd Bank were the major laggards.
Bharti and Wal-Mart JV will be critical for the US giant to study the Indian scenario.
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