Tesco & Sainsbury Have Applied with The Indian Government to Open Sourcing Centres

Tesco and Sainsbury, two of the popular British supermarket chains, have applied with the Indian Government to open sourcing centres in the country, Union Commerce and Textiles Minister Anand Sharma said on the sidelines of a discussion with the scientists of the Central Manufacturing Technology Institute.
 
Mr. Sharma said several single-brand retailers already have their sourcing bases in India and the sourcing by global retailers would further increase due to favourable Government policies.
 
He said the Government has so far approved 63 proposals for foreign direct investment (FDI) in single-brand retail, since the norms were eased last year.
 
However, the biggest FDI proposal received so far in terms of investment value is of Swedish home furnishings retailer IKEA, which plans to invest more than Rs. 100 billion.
 
IKEA already sources products worth nearly US$ 1 billion from India, the Minister had said earlier at a separate event held at IIM Bangalore.
 
IKEA’s proposal has already been examined by the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) and is awaiting a nod from Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA).