As Indians celebrate the Hindu festival of Diwali, executives at Wal-Mart India don’t have much reason to cheer. The company is still waiting for its big breakthrough in India, a market it has been trying to crack at least since 2007. That’s when the American retailer teamed up with one of the top businessmen in the country, Sunil Mittal, to open wholesale stores in India. If all had gone well, that partnership with Bharti Enterprises was supposed to have led to consumer-facing stores, too.
When then-Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2012 eased restrictions on foreign ownership in retail, Wal-Mart Stores (WMT) executives saw an opportunity in the world’s second-largest country. In September 2012, a Wal-Mart executive told Bloomberg News the two sides were in talks and retail stores were less than two years away.
Those discussions didn’t end well. Wal-Mart and Bharti Enterprises went their separate ways last year, dissolving the joint venture in October 2013. Wal-Mart bought out Bharti and took full control of the 20 members-only, cash-and-carry stores in India. After that, the company largely kept its India plans on hold: It’s been two years since Wal-Mart added new wholesale stores in India.
via Wal-Mart Struggles to Crack Retail Market in India – Businessweek.
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 