When victims turn allies: Walmart eyes mom and pop stores to take on rivals

These unlikely allies are part of Walmart's move to crack the country's giant consumer market, taking on e-commerce arch-rival Amazon.com Inc. and Asia's richest man, Mukesh Ambani

Walmart Inc is making friends in India with the kind of competitors that it spent decades putting out of business in the US -- mom and pop stores.

Years of lobbying by global retailers failed to persuade the Indian government to open its market to foreign competition, because of fears that it may put out of business many of the 12 million neighborhood stores that account for almost 90 per cent of the country’s retail sales. Walmart’s attempt to build an e-commerce business to reach consumers was also hampered by new regulations.

So the US company is now rolling out a plan