Indians to protest against foreign retailers

Indian traders and farmers said Tuesday they would stage a nationwide protest next month against any government move to open up the nation's retail sector to competition from foreign supermarkets.
Overseas retail giants such as Wal-Mart of the United States and Britain's Tesco have been pushing for a government green light that would clear the way for them to enter the vast sector.
"We refuse to become puppets in the hands of foreign corporate players. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) will kill the retail business forever," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary of the Confederation of India Traders.
The protest organisers said they hoped more than one million traders and farmers would take part in the pan-India event on August 9.
India's 1.2-billion-strong population looms large in the aspirations of international retailers, who are faced with saturated Western markets and want to develop new outlets to sell directly to Indian customers.