Even as the debate over the entry of the world’s largest retail company, the $316 billion Wal-Mart, into India with Bharti Enterprises continues, the US giant’s vice-chairman, Michael Duke, along with a team of company officials, visited Mumbai on Thursday to get a first-hand experience of the retail scenario in the country.

Duke, who was seen with Bharti Enterprises joint managing director Rajan Mittal at the Inorbit mall in the city, also visited Spencer’s, and met with a top official of Shopper’s Stop as well, sources said.

Describing Duke’s India sojourn as a “routine business visit”, a Wal-Mart spokesperson said no business announcement regarding the company’s specific plans would be made during this visit. He said the visit was aimed at getting personally acquainted with the Indian market.

The official said, “Our business arrangements with Bharti for wholesale cash-and-carry are still being discussed. We look forward to partnering with them to build backward linkages with farmers and suppliers through a robust and efficient supply chain.”

Wal-Mart also said that in line with existing guidelines, Bharti Retail had approached it for technology support in logistics, supply chain and back-end technology.

“At this stage, we are still in preliminary discussions,” the official added.

Duke was slated to meet Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal and senior government officials in the evening. Sourcing from India for its international operations continues to remain a growing interest for Wal-Mart.

It already sources goods worth $1.5 billion from India. This is expected to rise to $10 billion over the next few years.

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