Stir against organized retail set to go national

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest listed retailer, has just announced its India plans. Unorganized retailers across India will mark that and the entry of other large retailers on Thursday by burning effigies of the CEOs of Wal-Mart and others, closing some wholesale markets and shops and holding demonstrations in the first wave of nationwide protest against them.

The protests, asking large firms to “Quit Retail,” in India’s 60th year of Independence, in a twist on the famous “Quit India” slogan that Indians used to end British rule, also coincides with the anniversary of that movement. It will bring together an eclectic group of small retailers, hawkers, farmers, wholesalers and trade union activists.

Read more at Livemint.com

Wal-Mart, Bharti to hold news conference

MUMBAI: Bharti Enterprises and Wal-Mart Stores Inc will hold a media conference in New Delhi at 3:30 pm on Monday, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart said.

A senior official from Wal-Mart and the head of Bharti Retail Ltd, Rajan Mittal, will be present at the conference, she said.

NDTV Profit television said Bharti Enterprises chief Sunil Mittal said 8 joint stores had been finalised, with the first store formats to be cash-and-carry.

Earlier this year, Bharti and Wal-Mart agreed to form a joint venture for cash-and-carry stores and back-end operations in India.

Ambani Vs Ambani or Ambani & Ambani

It is fashionable for Indian media to describe any bickering in the Ambani household as Ambani vs Ambani. For a moment, spare a thought for Ambani & Ambani. If the net worth of the two Ambani brothers is combined, it will propel them to the fourth slot globally in the Forbes list of billionaires and to the No.1 position among Indian billionaires, even ahead of Lakshmi Niwas Mittal.

Think about it. Their combined wealth of $38.3 billion will make them the second-richest business family in the world, next only to the Waltons of Wal-Mart whose combined wealth tots up to a staggering $83 billion. As Mukesh Ambani gears up to meet the threat of Wal-Mart in India, he might appreciate the irony.

Leave aside the irony, it would have made the legendary Dhirubhai Ambani proud. Strategy gurus around the world may see this as a great opportunity for a Harvard or a Kellogg case study - call it 'Divide And Grow.' It is possible that the emergence of the Ambanis as one of the biggest business families in the world would not have taken place if the two brothers had not split.

Read more at The Economic Times