When UK retailer Marks and Spencer opened its first flagship store in Mumbai in partnership with India’s Reliance Industries, it could hardly have done more to promote the occasion. Bollywood actress Prachi Desai joined Mark Ashman, chief executive of Marks and Spencer Reliance India, along with Sir Richard Stagg, New Delhi-based British high commissioner, to inaugurate the store on the outskirts of the city.
“The store is bigger than other Marks and Spencer stores in Mumbai so offers a wider range than ever before,” gushed Ms Desai in the marketing blurb.

The new India 