by saritha raiindias longneglected retail market is turning into one of the worlds hottest thanks to warren buffett jeff bezos and a frenzy of billiondollar dealmakingwalmart inc just wrapped up a 16 billion agreement for control of the countrys leading ecommerce player flipkart online services pvt while bezos amazoncom inc negotiates deals with a large supermarket chain and an investment in a prominent retail conglomerate according to local media this week buffetts berkshire hathaway inc agreed to acquire a stake in the company behind digital payments leader paytm advt why the sudden interest in india the new optimism is fueled by rising standards of living increases in smartphone usage and cheap data plans that are boosting internet penetration across the nation perhaps most important india is the last big retail market still up for grabs with an internet economy projected to double to 250 billion by 2020its a race for leadership said anil kumar the bangalorebased chief executive officer at researcher redseer consulting theres far more action in india compared with stable markets like china and the usonline sales grew 23 percent last year and are up 40 percent so far in 2018 according to redseer the organized retail market is underpenetrated leading to tieups between online and offline players and driving unprecedented levels of investments kumar said indias vast retail industry has no parallel other than perhaps china but unlike the chinese market dominated by alibaba group holding ltd india is relatively open and largely unconquered offering global players vast opportunity to growindia is now the worlds fastest growing major economy and per capita incomes have been climbing steadily according to a forrester research inc report earlier this month the south asian country is the worlds fastest growing ecommerce marketwarren buffett in talks for a slice of paytmmukesh ambani jeff bezos jack ma look for partners to sell you vegetables amazon and flipkart have cornered about threequarters of the online indian retail market but other big players are getting aggressive thats meant heavily discounted offerings for consumers although the substantial investments have crimped profitability advt when walmart announced the flipkart deal earlier this year sp global ratings changed its outlook on the us retailer to negative saying that flipkart was poised to generate losses in the next few yearsthe appeal of retail lies in the population of india the aspirations of india the consumption power of india said kishore biyani the billionaire chief executive of mumbaibased retail conglomerate future group which runs the 2000plus store future retail ltd including the countrys largest departmental chainbiyani said his groups online revenues are nearing 150 million he and others predict that indias retail industry will have a unique combination of online and offline tieupsfuture group is reported to have had negotiations about a stake sale with amazon as well as alibaba executives biyani refused to directly comment simply saying he too is looking to crack a deal like everybody else amazon declined to comment and alibaba didnt respond to a request for