Father Time catches up with India's traditional bazaars

Foreign supermarket giants eyeing India may see rich pickings at New Delhi markets like Karol Bagh, where shoppers must negotiate a plethora of dubious-looking power lines, stinking rubbish piled high on sidewalks and cars parked three deep.

There is money in the narrow and clogged streets here, part of India's $450 billion retail sector that ranks as one of the last frontier markets unpenetrated by global retailers.

But the ragged, tiny shops seem a stain on the Asian juggernaut's modern ambitions.

Image: In this file photo, vendors wait for customers at a vegetable market in Delhi.

Text: Alistair Scrutton and Henry Foy, Reuters

AP Images