"We are not looking at selling off to anyone," said Sachin Bansal, Flipkart co-founder and Executive Chairman, in 2012.

Clearly, lot can change in six years. India’s e-commerce industry is at the cusp of a tectonic shift and country's start-up world is facing a bitter-sweet moment.

Flipkart, the most successful home-grown e-commerce company and the market leader, is set to be acquired by US retail giant Walmart in a potential $15 billion deal.

"For Amazon, India has been very successful geography to operate in. But Walmart coming in here means extra or higher competition for Amazon because Walmart is probably the only group in the world which has a financial muscle, which has a technology muscle, which has sourcing and the product diversity about which Amazon could be concerned," said Ajay Dua, former Commerce Secretary.

A panel of eminent experts like Ajay Dua, former Commerce Secretary; Sanchit Vir Gogia, Chief Analyst at Greyhound Research; Avinash Bajaj of Matrix India Partners; Ashish Kashyap, founder and former CEO of ibibo; Harish Bijoor, Brand Consultant and Harminder Sahni of Wazir Advisors discussed the Walmart-Flipkart deal.

First Published:May 8, 2018 8:52 PM IST