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INDIA CRITICAL FOR GLOBAL GROWTH: WAL-MARTCurrently working in three bigeconomies of the world – India, Chinaand Japan – US retail giant Wal-Mart isalso keeping a close watch on South EastAsia for expansion. Keen to maintain itsposition as a major retailer, Scott Price,President and CEO of Wal-Mart Asiasaid, “We will capture 10 to 15 marketsin Asia in ten years. At present, expansion plans for India alone isthe full time job for us.”Price said it would be wrong to compare India and China, butIndia has a lot of potential as it has availability of highly educatedworkforce. “The retail giant would also like to increase sourcingfrom India for their stores all over the world,” he said.“The government should take care of issues related to FDI,GST and providing infrastructure support. Wal-Mart will keeppersisting because its efforts in India is critical to its globalgrowth strategy. Confronted with saturated markets in US andother developed countries, the company needs to establish abigger presence in emerging markets like India, where modernstores make up just 5% of the country's retail industry,” Priceadded.Establishing good relations with farmers is the centrepieceof the company's plans. Wal-Mart, which working in a JV withBharti group in India, is also moving towards contract farming inIndia, starting with their direct farm initiative, Price said. Atpresent, the JV has tied up 110 farmers at Malerkotla whichwould be expanded, as they want to reduce the net food miles,the CEO said.TATA COMMUNICATIONS LAUNCHES TRUEROOTS SERVICETata Communications has announced that residents ofSingapore, Hong Kong, France andGermany can now call their loved onesusing the Trueroots InternationalCalling Service.Already available in the US, the UK and Canada, Truerootsoffers superior voice quality and easy-to-access connectivityacross the globe, without hidden fees or extra charges, thecompany said in a press release. Calls are carried on TataCommunications’ extensive global fibre optic network, one ofthe world's largest global submarine cable infrastructures,providing unsurpassed quality and capacity and ensuring clearand error-free connectivity, it added.As an introductory offer, customers who subscribe now willget talk time equivalent to 100 minutes of free calling time, thecompany said.The service can be bought online at www.trueroots.sg forSingapore , www.trueroots.hk for Hong kong andwww.trueroots.eu for France and Germany or by calling TataCommunication customer service for Trueroots directly. Itoffers a host of features including PIN-less Dialing , autorecharge and speed dial.India's leading privatesector lender ICICI Bankhas ranked 45 among the100 most valuable brandsin the world, a list that hasbeen topped by Google.ICICI 45TH MOST VALUABLE BRAND IN WORLD:BRANDZ TOP 100“With a brand value ofUSD 14.5 billion, the Indian bank ICICI is the first Indian brandto feature in the BrandZ Top 100. ICICI is the bank thatintroduced retail banking to India and stands to profit from thecountry's continuing growth,” according to the fifth annualMillward Brown Optimor BrandZ Top100 Most Valuable GlobalBrands 2010 list.It said ICICI pioneered ATMs in India to provide wide accessto banking and to help flatten the society's hierarchicalstructure.Separately, ICICI, which now operates almost 5,000 ATMs inIndia and is present in 18 countries, ranked number 10 out of thetop 20 financial institution brands.Apart from ICICI, another Indian company Infosys made itsdebut in Millward's 'technology category'.“Outside of the Top 100, Infosys is a second Indian brand,also new this year. Originator of the term 'the flat world', Infosysis India's most valuable technology brand and with a brand valueof USD 6.4 billion, is a strong contender to enter the Top 100ranking soon,” it said.Infosys ranked 18 in the top 20 technology brands category.Technology brands demonstrated their pervasiveness inpeople's daily lives, with Google topping the list as the MostValuable Global Brand with a total worth of USD 114 billion.PT’s PrepTalk – May 2010 35