Nivedita Mookerji, Business Standard12 Jul 2026Recently, fast moving consumer goods distributors posed some existential questions to the government: Have the rules changed for foreign-owned ecommerce firms? With that, the All India Consumer Products Distribution Federation made a plea to the government to examine if foreign-funded ecommerce and quick commerce players can run inventory-led businesses through warehouses and dark stores. One of them is Bentonville-headquartered Walmart, which holds a controlling stake in e-commerce major Flipkart. Both Flipkart and Amazon are upping their quick commerce play, a development that the Indian retail ecosystem players fear would hit them hard. For context, foreign e-commerce companies are allowed to do business through the marketplace model as opposed to the inventory-led format.