NEW DELHI, Nov. 27 — Wal-Mart moved closer to cracking open one of the last and potentially most lucrative frontiers for giant Western retailers today when it announced a joint venture to open stores in India.

Together with Bharti Enterprises, a leading Indian cellphone operator, the world’s biggest retailer will open “hundreds” of Wal-Mart superstores across India in the next five years, said Bharti’s chairman, Sunil Mittal.

The deal would be the first large-scale entry into the booming Indian market by a major foreign retailer. Companies like Wal-Mart and Carrefour, the French retailer, have long been stymied by government rules that critics call protectionist.

“It is the last and a very big frontier,” Mr. Mittal said in an interview at a World Economic Forum conference in New Delhi. “Brazil is done. China is done. This is the last Shangri-la of retail. Where will Tesco or Wal-Mart get their growth? Here.”