Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, says that its goal in India is to establish a relationship with the small business community by partnering with them and helping them lower costs and increase profits resulting in benefits for multiple aspects of the country's economy.

"As per current guidelines, Wal-Mart will enter into a joint venture with Bharti for our wholesale cash-and-carry business in India that will sell goods to retailers, including small store owners -- or kirana stores -- at very low prices," Kevin Gardner, senior manager, international corporate affairs, Wal-Mart, told rediff.com.

Gardner's comments came in reaction to a protest organised by ACORN India and its affiliates during last weekend's Bollywood awards ceremony in Nassau County in Long Island. The protestors were urging awards chair Kamal Dandona to drop Wal-Mart's sponsorship of the event for the company's alleged human rights abuses.

Although the actual protest boiled down to just a handful of people distributing fliers outside the venue denouncing Wal-Mart's involvement with the event, ACORN officials had earlier told this correspondent that the company's entry into India would have devastating impact on the country's agricultural and rural sectors as Wal-Mart would displace small and medium businesses and farmers, vendors and consumer cooperative stores.

But Wal-Mart said such misgivings were totally unfounded.

"While Bharti, our joint venture partner in cash-and-carry, has announced its intention to enter into retail, it needs to be clearly understood that this is a separate, wholly owned and managed Bharti venture. Unfortunately, wholesale and retail are often confused resulting in unwarranted speculation and misinformation," Gardner said.

He said Wal-Mart also works with its global suppliers to improve workplace conditions, including educating workers, training factory managers to comply with the highest ethical standards, and some other basic business functions such as improving production planning and supply chain management.

"When we find a problem, we fix it. But instead of halting our work with a supplier factory that is not doing well, our ethical standards team works with them, so they can improve their performance. The ethical standards community endorses this approach, and we think it's better for those factories and the people who work there," Gardner said in response to a question.

He said while factories are given the opportunity to improve their working conditions, certain violations are not tolerated and will result in an immediate banning of factory production for Wal-Mart.

In 2005, he said, 141 factories were permanently banned from doing business with Wal-Mart, primarily because of underage labour violations. In addition, Wal-Mart disapproved another 23 factories as a result of multiple instances of non-compliance with the Standards of Suppliers, he added.

Denouncing the protest, Gardner said that it was a shame that this group would choose an event like the Bollywood Awards, which celebrates India's vibrant film industry, to 'make irresponsible and nonfactual allegations about Wal-Mart's business in the United States and abroad.'

"Just to let you know Wal-Mart has a strong history with India, having established a direct sourcing operation in India since 2001 as part of our global procurement operations. We currently source goods worth over $600 million directly from suppliers in India, which translates into thousands of jobs," he said.

"Many of these suppliers have grown and developed with Wal-Mart over the years and today supply not only to Wal-Mart stores around the world but many other major global retailers," Gardner said.

He said direct sourcing from the region will continue to grow as suppliers are innovative and respond quickly to new trends for apparel and goods found in Wal-Mart stores around the world. "Wherever Wal-Mart is around the globe, we go to great lengths to ensure that our international operations reflect local needs and this will be no different in India," he said.

"We look forward to working with communities in India to be a good citizen and provide the same excellent service and convenience that we provide in 13 other countries around the globe," Gardner added.