India's top business conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd unveiled an ambitious plan to venture into retail trade, investing billions of dollars and hiring thousands of staff to create a network of giant Wal-Mart-style retail stores.
Reliance Industries -- known for its ability to plan and execute big projects -- will set up a new company with a capital base of 100 billion rupees (US$2.2 billion) to foray into retail trade, chairman Mukesh Ambani told an annual shareholders' meeting on Tuesday in Bombay.
The announcement comes at a time when global retailers like US-based Wal-Mart Stores Inc and Germany's Metro AG have been lobbying the Indian government to open its retail industry to foreign investment.
But opposition from communist coalition partners and domestic businesses has forced the government to move slowly.
India's booming retail market, estimated at about US$200 billion, is currently dominated by more than 12 million mom-and-pop shops.
Large air-conditioned stores remain a rarity.
Rising middle class incomes and an increase in demand for branded products are driving the growth of retail business in India. Nevertheless, organized retailing -- selling through company-owned network stores -- currently totals about US$8 billion, or less than 5 percent of trade in the country.
Reliance Retail Ltd plans to span a spectrum of markets -- from food to footwear, ovens to home computers, and international luxury goods, Ambani said.
The company already has 2,000 employees working on its retail plans, but that number will soon swell to 10,000, and eventually 500,000 over the next few years, he said.
Ambani did not say when he expects the first stores to open.
Analysts said it was unlikely that global retail giants like Wal Mart would be deterred from trying to enter the Indian market because of Reliance's plans.
"There will still be enough room for more players," said Nagarajan Narasimham, an analyst at credit rating agency Crisil Ltd.
But companies like Wal Mart may have to change their expansion strategies when India opens its retail sector to foreign companies, Narasimham said. Instead of building their own network, global retailers may have to buy out Indian companies that are already in the trade, he said.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique