Commerce is king in the empire's old home
James Lamont | Sunday, 8 March 2009
FT Syndication Service
SHIMLA: Shimla, the Indian hill station from which Britain ruled nearly a fifth of humanity less than a century ago, is a place redolent with imperial folklore and the architectural tastes of rural England.
The town was the summer capital of British India. Today its administrative reach goes no further than the northern state of Himachal Pradesh - but the retail supply chains that make it the shopping capital of the Himalayas stretch across continents.
Shimla is part of a retail revolution spreading across India. Shopping malls, many of them incomplete hulks, are sprouting all over the country's largest cities as organised retail grows. Some estimates predict that in six years' time, India will be a retail market worth $450bn (
SHIMLA: Shimla, the Indian hill station from which Britain ruled nearly a fifth of humanity less than a century ago, is a place redolent with imperial folklore and the architectural tastes of rural England.
The town was the summer capital of British India. Today its administrative reach goes no further than the northern state of Himachal Pradesh - but the retail supply chains that make it the shopping capital of the Himalayas stretch across continents.
Shimla is part of a retail revolution spreading across India. Shopping malls, many of them incomplete hulks, are sprouting all over the country's largest cities as organised retail grows. Some estimates predict that in six years' time, India will be a retail market worth $450bn (