Coming to market

摘要

"Why are Indians better at cricket than at soccer?" asks Dilip Modi, boss of Spice Communications, an Indian mobile-telephony firm. Because, he jokes, every time you award an Indian a corner, he opens a shop. India, according to a study published last year, has the highest density of retail outlets of any country in the world—more than 15m, compared with 900,000 in America, where the market is, in value terms, 13 times bigger. In India the retail industry is the largest provider of jobs after agriculture, accounting for 6-7% of employment and about 10% of GDP.