Walmart vs Amazon: lines between the two sides blur in Battleground India

With the Arkansas-based retail chain holding talks with Flipkart, the stakes for both giants have gone up a notch

A decade into India, the world’s largest retailer Walmart is in advanced talks to start a new innings in the country. This time with a partner that started up famously as an online bookstore around the same time that America’s retail giant was busy signing on the dotted line with Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Enterprises to get a foothold in the country.

Walmart’s India journey from Ludhiana, Mittal’s hometown, to Bengaluru, the headquarters for Flipkart, has been rocky, with broken relationships, allegations of lobbying with policymakers and thwarted ambition in an adverse regulatory environment playing their role. More than anything