作者： bharat.cn

The world’s largest retailer, Walmart, has laid off about a third of the executives at its Indian headquarters in Gurgaon as it struggles to boost its business in the country.
The company fired a total of 56 people, including eight with senior management positions and others in middle and lower management, Krish Iyer, the president and CEO of Walmart India, said in a statement released to the media on Monday. The cuts reportedly amount to around one percent of the total staff working for the company in India.

“We are also looking for ways to operate more efficiently, which requires us to review our corporate structure to ensure that we are organized in the right way,” he said, adding that all the dismissed employees will be offered enhanced severance benefits and outplacement services.

An earlier report claimed that a second wave of dismissals is expected in April as the company may leave the wholesale segment in the country as it has failed to turn a profit. Walmart rebuffed the claims as “baseless and incorrect,” adding that its sales in the country rose 22 percent in 2019. The rise in sales, however, does not automatically mean that it did not sustain losses.

India’s anti-trust panel has launched a probe into Amazon and Walmart-run Flipkart amid claims they violated a competition law, as India’s traders group plans to stage mass protests when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos arrives this week.
The world’s second richest person and Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos should hardly be counting on a red carpet welcome in India as he arrives in the country’s capital, New Delhi, later this week, with mass rallies and sit-ins being planned by the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) protesting what it argues are the online retail giant’s ‘predatory’ trade practices.

The CAIT, which represents some 70 million small traders and businesses, has called on its supporters to go on strike on Wednesday, when Bezos is set to touch down.

The group argues that retail giants such as Amazon and Walmart-owned Flipkart have been selling products at dumping prices, pushing local merchants out of business. The CAIT accused Amazon of trying to spin its vulture capitalism as something that can empower small traders, while peddling “a wrong and false narrative.”