It should be recalled that when Dr. Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India, made comments about Indian Agriculture and expectation of companies like Reliance getting into, that one should expect a huge relation between that and Reliance’s plans in Retailing. The recent news splash of Reliance investing Rs. 4000 Crores in agri business in Punjab and Harayana is all part of Reliance grand entry into retailing and the major thrust of Grocery Retailing.

Getting into direct contract farming in such large scale initiatives, proposed building of an airstrip and purchase / lease of 25 aircrafts (as some have reported) just to transport the produce to different hubs is all mind-boggling for a country that has just started to see retailing in such frenzy in the last couple of years.

For the moment whilst Reliance keeps everyone guessing and releasing news like these, its anyones guess that its building a fort before FDI can really be opened up in the country. Reliance has already started to build its entry barriers to International Players like Wal-Mart and Tesco who are very keen on entering India as soon as the government opens up this sector. Reliance’s tactics of absorbing the best talent, high salaries, multi-product, multi-format, all only show that its creating the entry barriers for others. Whilst some are wondering how Reliance is going to achieve this, it should be recalled on how Reliance went about in setting up its Reliance Infocom and Reliance Cafe outlets throughout the country in less than 18 months with a speculated investment of 15000 crores+ With atleast double the amount in its kitty now, its anyones guess now what can be achieved.

All contents from http://retailindia.typepad.com/retailindia/2006/04/reliance_retail.html;

Reliance’s Big Broadcasting is one of India’s new DTH “wannabee” broadcasters keen to tap into the nation’s growing wealth. Its initial plans are now being unveiled.
First up will be movies, in Q3 this year. At least five movie channels will be in the first bundle, including English-language and Hindi services. Reliance has applied to India’s broadcasting ministry for licences to cover 20 initial channels, and the list includes five general entertainment channels, plus kids’ and plenty of all-important music offerings.

Local sources say that Reliance is talking to Intelsat about satellite carriage on its Intelsat 10 craft but terms have yet to be agreed. Intelsat-10 operates from 68.5 deg East, and already has a huge amount of C-Band and Ku-Band content going into India (and China) including channels from India’s public broadcaster Doordarshan.

Reliance is joining a somewhat crowded market with established players like Zee TV’s Dish system, TataSky from a Murdoch-backed consortium (and which includes Star TV’s Indian channels), and other newcomers like Bharti and Sun. Reliance and Bharti are both deep-pocketed cellular operators who are looking to use their mobile telephony sales and marketing skills to open up the DTH market.

Artical from http://rapidtvnews.com/index.php/indias-reliance-starting-big-with-movies.html