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The Indian retail sector has been a euphoria over the last five years. India topped the A.T.
Kearney's Global Retail Development Index for two consecutive years and this has
infatuated Indian as well as foreign retail players to go gaga on the merchandising track.
According to geographical expansion, Delhi/NCR and Mumbai are the felicitated regions as
the top companies have rated the spending potential of consumers in the vicinity of the
national capital and the financial capital as excellent. Other metros such as Kolkata,
Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have caught the sight of investors but their fortunes are
yet to be illuminated. Companies like The Future Group, Reliance, Bharti-Walmart, DLF etc.
have shown the way for other to enter. The country is expecting a surge in the growth
sprint and let's hope for the best.

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 Big Bazaar is a chain of department stores owned by the Pantaloon Group
(Future Group)and headed by Kishore Biyani and headquartered at Mumbai. It offers all
types of household items such as home furnishing, utensils, fashion products etc. It has a
grocery department and vegetable section known as the Food Bazaar and its online
shopping site is known as FutureBazaar.com. The real estate fund management company
promoted by the Future Group expects to develop more than 50 projects across India
covering a combined area of more than 16 million sq. ft. On April 1 2007, Big Bazaar had to
shut its outlets in Mumbai as the 120 retrenched employees called a strike with the support
of Bhartiya Kamgar Sena (the trade Union wing of Shiv Sena). Later the management
agreed to reinstate the sacked workers.



, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bharti Enterprises. has announced two joint
ventures (JV)with the international retailing behemoth, Wal-Mart. The first JV ensures cash
and carry business, in which 100 percent FDI is permitted and it can sell only to retailers
and distributors. The second JV concerns the franchise arrangement. Sunil Mittal, Chairman
of the Bharti Group assured that the ventures will use ³low prices every day´ and ³best
practices for the satisfaction of the customer´. Processed foods and vegetables will be
delivered by Bharti Field Fresh, Bharti's JV with Rothschild. Bharti Retail aims to foray every
city with a population exceeding 1 million. It has plans to come up with an investment of
more than $2 billion in convenience stores, supermarkets and hypermarkets spread over an
aggregate 10 million sq. ft. The expansion drive looks ambitious but analysts are worried
that Bharti may face stiff competition from Pantaloon and Reliance as they too have
sanguine plans to flood the markets with thousands of retail outlets in the coming five
years. Bharti Telecom also has plans to offer all its fixed and mobile telecom products and
services from a single window to the SMB (Small and Medium Business) enterprises under
the Bharti Infotel division..


Reliance claimed last year to start a retail chain that will be unique in size
and spread, will lead to the welfare of one and all ranging from Indian farmers,
manufacturers and ultimately consumers. It is known as Reliance Retail Ltd.(RRL) and is a
100 percent subsidiary of Reliance industries Ltd.(RIL). Soon after the Bharti-Wal Mart tie
up, there was the news that RIL (Reliance Industries Ltd.) Chairman Mukesh Ambani met
Commerce Minister Kamal Nath to discuss the apprehension of cheap imports from China.
Reliance Retail has plans to open 4,000 outlets across 1,500 towns for an investment of
$5.6 billion. Reliance is not away from agro-business. According to Buddhadeb
Bhattacharjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal, ³Reliance will hold demonstration farming,
produce good quality seeds and give inputs to farmers´. Its most significant participation
has been in the food procurement business in Madhya Pradesh and Punjab. This has in fact
compelled the government to import wheat this year. Reliance Retail has also been reported
to have entered into an agreement with footwear manufacturer Bata India Ltd. so that they
will involve in selling each other's products.

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  DLF Retail Developers Ltd. is one of the troikas of the DLF Group.
Besides being India's largest real estate developer, DLF is also of the leaders in innovating
shopping malls in India. It caught public eye when it launched the 2,50,000 sq ft. shopping
mall in Gurgaon. It has brought a dramatic change in the lifestyles and entertainment with
its City Centres and DT Cinemas. DLF has plans to invest Rs. 2000-3000 crore in all the
emerging areas from metros to A class cities in the next two years. Till last year the
company was involved in building 18 malls out of which 10 were in the NCR region. Future
plans of DLF involve opening up of 100 malls(speciality malls, big box retailing and
integrated malls) across 60 cities in next 8-10 years. They are slowly transforming into
'lease' and 'revenue share' models.

Local players like ITC, the A.V. Birla Group and Tatas have given the hints to enter
organised retail. France¶s Carrefour SA and Britain¶s Tesco too were recently in news for
their future plans to explore the Indian retail market.