Devoted to Managers and those that seek to improve their management skills

While India still refuses to legally allow foreign multi-brand retailers to operate in the country, there is a backdoor to getting in, and that's through the wholesale business.

Wal-Mart (WMT) has went that route, as they've partnered with Bharti Enterprises in a joint venture to buile wholesale outlets throughout the country. The new venture will entail purchasing goods from small manufacturers and farmers and reselling to the approximate 12 million small mom and pop shops scattered throughout the nation.

Current Indian law does allow the wholesale operations to buy and resale, but they can also offer back-end support to Indian retailers.

Indian retailers are allowed to enter into franchise deals with foreign companies and sell their goods that way, but only with single-brand goods.

This is a good move by Wal-Mart in that it does play to one of their major strengths in supply chain management. Helping existing businesses in the country will create the kind of good will the company is probably hoping will end up breaking down resistance and the market opening up to them.

You can also see how the training offered by Wal-Mart in this area could create a ready-made group of quality retailers that could step into running Wal-Mart stores when the market opens up. They'll be trained in the Wal-Mart way of doing things before they ever begin working for or with them.

Overall this is a pretty smart plan on their part.