The government eased investment rules for the retail sector on Thursday in a renewed attempt to attract foreign supermarket operators such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Tesco.
Retail giant Walmart and Bharti have decided to part ways.
Wal-Mart has accused Visa of excessively high card swipe fees, several months after the retailer opted out of a class action settlement between merchants and Visa and MasterCard Inc.
The delay and faltering partnership mean Wal-Mart may miss out on the "first-mover" advantage in a country considered the last great frontier for global retailers.
Bharti-Walmart, the joint wholesale retail venture between Bharti Enterprises and the world's largest retailer Wal-Mart Stores Inc of the US, unveiled its sustainable agricultural programme at Haider Nagar village, near Malerkotla in Punjab.
Wal-Mart and other retailers lobbied for years to gain access to India's market, lured by the promise of a middle class that will one day rival China's.
Tapping customers to deliver goods would put the world's largest retailer squarely in middle of a new phenomenon sometimes known as 'crowd-sourcing,' or the 'sharing economy.'
Wal-Mart said in its annual report, filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, that it could not estimate how much loss would come to because of the complexity of the related probes and internal review.
Asked for comments about Commerce and Industry Minister Anand Sharma informing the Rajya Sabha in September that Wal-Mart had made the investment in Cedar via its Mauritius arm but the RBI had no FDI data of the same, Mittal said: "I have no idea. We have given everything what is required".
Walmart is happy with its current partnership with Bharti.
As an increase in FDI in retail is being opposed, local retailers have a thriving year.
Eighteen months hence, Reliance Retail is a 600-store chain, while Wal-Mart, which had planned to start operations by the year-end, has deferred the launch to 2009.
Speaking at Assocham's international retail summit, Rakesh Kacker, additional secretary in the Department of Consumer Affairs, said the government would take a decision at an "appropriate time". He did not specify the time-frame. The move has been in abeyance due to protests from across the political spectrum.
Wal-Mart chief S Robson Walton met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Sharma last week and discussed the foreign direct investment scenario in the retail sector in India.
At a time when companies are cutting costs and jobs to tackle the economic downturn, global retail chain major Wal-Mart has doled out $933.6 million in bonuses to its workers.
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.
In the subcontinent, Wal-Mart is aiming for slow and steady growth.
An investigation by the government into whether Wal-Mart Stores Inc violated local investment rules in 2010 has been referred to the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), officials familiar with the matter said.
The world's largest retailer entered India in 2007.
Wal-Mart's "suspected bribery" unearthed in India involves thousands of small payments to low-level local officials.
The shopping day, similar to Cyber Monday and Black Friday in the United States, comes less than eight weeks after Alibaba's record $25 billion public share listing in New York.
Infosys has been making bets on automation and other high-margin services like artificial intelligence to regain some ground
India could allow global online retailers such as Amazon.com Inc to sell their own products as early as next month, removing restrictions that could boost competition in one of the world's biggest, and most price-sensitive, retail markets.
Apple Pay also faces competition from Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) - a consortium of retailers including Wal-Mart and Best Buy - which is developing its own mobile payment platform.
Here's how she is linked to the most talked about Oscars speech of the year.
Google Inc notched a legal victory in its bid to create the world's largest digital books library, winning the reversal of a court order that had allowed authors challenging the project to sue as a group.
Ebay will cut around 2,400 jobs this quarter in a bid to improve business efficiencies.
American media has taken a critical view of his accomplishments, saying his flagship 'Make in India' drive is "so far mostly hype."
Not just Tesco, Auchan, Walmart, even Biyani & Reliance keen on food FDI: Harsimrat Kaur Badal
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