India's Bharti close to choosing a retail partner -- perhaps Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (NYSE:WMT) is now recognized as a company that enters foreign markets that show great future potential -- like China and India -- to counter losses as in South Korea and Germany. Bharti, one of India's largest conglomerates, has reportedly been talking to some of the world's largest retailers in its effort to try and hash out a retail partner for a joint retail venture in India's rapidly growing marketplace. Both Wal-Mart and Tesco PLC (LON:TSCO) have been in talks with Bharti.

With India's retail sector set to continue exploding, everyone from France's Carrefour to Germany's Metro AG to Britain's Tesco is trying to get a foothold into the country. Wal-Mart is not standing still either, having wanted to crack into the Indian market just as bad as any of the competition.

This is no small potato. India's retail industry is estimated to be right around the $300 billion mark presently and is forecast to grow to $427 billion by 2010 -- and even further to $637 billion by 2015. Anyone who's anyone in the retail industry surely wants a piece of that pie. Although companies like Wal-Mart and Tesco can sell wholesale in India, they -- and others -- have so far been banned at the retail level.