Telegraph | Money | India's Wal-Mart

Telegraph | Money | India's Wal-Mart

Mukesh Ambani, RIL's chairman, plans to open 100m sq ft of retail space in India by 2010. Local press reports talk of between 5,000 and 10,000 stores spread across 1,500 towns and cities. Ambani has described the concept as "a pan-India footprint of multi-format retail outlets".

Reliance will operate hypermarkets, convenience and speciality stores, as well as business-to-business operations, selling food, clothing, electrical goods, consumer durables, luxury goods and financial and travel services. The project will employ 1m people within five years.

In developing the chain, Ambani is doing far more than simply opening a network of shops. He is revolutionising the Indian food chain, setting up a nationwide distribution infrastructure from scratch, and transforming the way that India's 1bn-plus inhabitants consume.

Centuries of tradition and established patterns of living are woven into this process. In essence, Reliance is aiming to turn a fragmented, localised, largely rural economy into an organised, process-driven, modern retail environment.