Emaar MGF Land Pvt, the real estate major's Indian arm, is on the lookout for a foreign partner for its retail venture in India, a report said.

'Retail will play an important role in growth and diversification,' Shravan Gupta, vice chairman of New Delhi-based Emaar MGF, was quoted as saying in the Bloomberg report.

'We are looking at a foreign company that's not present in India. We can hand-hold them here.'

Emaar is coming up with at least five malls in India.

Chain store sales in India could go up by 35 per cent annually until 2015 to Dh294 billion ($80 billion), said a recent McKinsey & Co report.

Foreign retailers cannot start retail chains in India though the ban doesnot apply to wholesale stores.