New jobs:

It's a challenge that some of India's own industrial conglomerates are taking up. Last January, Reliance Industries said it was investing $5bn in creating a chain of hypermarkets and back-end retail services. Its plans called for the creation of a whole new supply chain, with new stores, cold storage facilities, food processing units and contract farming. It will initially launch pilot projects in three Indian states before potentially rolling the strategy out to 500 Indian towns and cities. The investment could create up to 400,000 jobs, it believes. Elsewhere, consumer goods group ITC has set up its "e-Choupal" scheme to try and improve the productivity of farmers that supply its food processing operations. It has built internet kiosks in rural villages to help give farmers access to the latest information on things like the weather, current market prices and what foods are in demand.

Tentative steps:
So while Indian businesses forge ahead with their own plans to take a big share of Indian consumers' spending, and the Indian government slowly refines its retail roadmap, where does that leave supermarket giants such as America's Wal-Mart, Germany's Metro and Britain's Tesco? For years, their plans for domination of the Indian retail scene have been sitting gathering dust. German store group Metro has made tentative steps, via its chain of wholesale cash & carry centres in cities like Bangalore. About 90% of the goods it offers come from local producers and suppliers, which could give it a headstart if the rules on selling to individual shoppers are relaxed in the future.

Western habits :
Ms Srivastava and Mr Ghosh are happy with their mall experience and would like to see the huge, unorganised retail sector in India which includes hundreds of thousands of pavement sellers - brought under a more organised umbrella.

We'll all soon be wearing denim jeans and white T-shirts Fashion designer Padmaja Krishnan

Countdown to India's retail revolution

The economy is growing by 8% a year, its stock market rose by nearly 40% in 2005 and foreign investors are flooding in. There are about nine million small grocery shops in India Whichever way you measure it, business in India is booming. And as the economy grows, so does India's middle class. It is estimated that 70 million Indians in a population of about 1 billion a figure that is set to rise to 140 million by 2011. Man a figure that is set to rise to 140 million by 2011. Many of these people are looking for more choice in where to spend their new-found wealt

Protectionist:
The Indian retail sector is now worth about

$250bn (140bn) a year, but it is heavily underdeveloped. over 95% of the market is made up of small, uncomputerised family-run stores. to greater overseas investment. Last month it eased restrictions on foreign investment, allowing over 95% of the market is made up of small, uncomputerised family-run stores. Now there are finally signs that the Indian government is dropping its traditionally protectionist stance and opening up its retail market