The world’s largest retailer Walmart will be a ‘speck’ in India’s market and its absence won’t make a huge difference in the country, Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said.
“Walmart will be a speck in India’s retail market. India’s retail market is driven by millions of standalone stores. India’s retail market has been strengthened by Indian retail chains. So why do we assume that Walmart will make a huge difference to India’s retail market?” the Finance Minister told CNBC-TV18 in an interview.
He was replying to a question on whether Walmart’s move to part ways with joint venture partner Bharti Enterprises was a setback for the Indian retail sector.
Bharti and Walmart said on October 9 that they have reached an agreement to independently own and operate separate business formats in India and discontinue their franchise agreement in the retail business.
The US retail giant has been pitching for relaxing local sourcing norms under the foreign direct investment policy for multi—brand retail. The Indian government has said there is no plan to relax the mandatory 30 per cent local sourcing norms for foreign players in the sector.
