Walmart set to halt expansion in India

Walmart Inc. is getting ready to make its physical presence disappear in India, and for the same reason it has fired a third of its top executives according to a local media report. 

The world's largest retailer has made up its mind to halt the expansion of new stores in India and will cut the number of staff in the coming days. The executives already sacked include vice presidents across sourcing, agri-business, and fast-moving consumer goods, and the real estate team responsible for finding new store locations has been disbanded

The Bentonville, Arkansas-based company sees no future in its physical operations in the country and will continue its operations in India with a merger on Flipkart, the e-commerce platform it bought for $16 billion in 2018. The reports of making an exit from the Indian market come after a struggle of decade. Rules designed to shield the 12 million local mom-and-pop stores - known as kiranas - from foreign competition has hamstrung Walmart and others, like Amazon Inc. Political pressure is now growing for stricter regulation of foreign e-commerce platforms as well.

Top Walmart officials have refrained from commenting on this so far.

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