India has regained its position at the top of an annual rating of countries’ retail sector potential that is being released a week after Ikea, the Swedish home retailer, said it was abandoning an attempt to open stores there.

The authors of AT Kearney’s 2009 Global Retail Development Index said that India’s largely unmodernised retail sector remained attractive to both domestic and international retailers, in spite of government regulations that prevent 100 per cent foreign ownership of retail stores.