, Columnist
India Offers a Bargain: Our Consumers, Your Jobs
Biggest liberalization for retail in years could woo firms like Apple and Ikea to do more business.
Resellers in India corner the iPhone market.
Photographer: Frank Bienewald/LightRocket/Getty Images
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The beleaguered Indian economy is finally making a sensible bargain with the rest of the world: “Take our billion-plus customers, give us jobs.”
Under a new foreign direct investment policy announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government Wednesday, India is undertaking its biggest liberalization of single-brand retail in seven years. One major concession: Contentious local sourcing requirements will need to be met as an average for the first five-year period, not annually.