Sunil Mittal’s Bharti group has tied up with American retail giant, Wal-Mart Stores Inc for their retail venture in India. The deal is expected to be signed in 7-10 days. Earlier, Bharti was in talks with Tesco and the reason for backing out is not known.
Foreign companies cannot directly invest in the retail segment in India. The modus operandi Indian companies follow is , Indian company takes the front end operations into their hands while the foreign company powers the backend including supplying goods. The same model is seen in Tata Croma joint venture.
Mittal is already famous for carving unique business models and I expect him to do something innovative in terms of retail business in India.