Kumar Birla’s last big splash was when he took over U.S.-based aluminum sheet maker Novelis in 2007 for $6 billion. There have been other takeovers since then — the U.S.-based Columbian Chemicals in 2011 for $875 million and Swedish pulp and bio-refinery company Domsjo Fabriker for $340 million the same year. On the domestic front, there were a couple of small acquisitions — Kanoria Chemicals, for instance. But Birla hasn’t really made big news at home since his unsuccessful raid on engineering major Larsen & Toubro several years ago.

That phase seems to be over. On April 30, group company Aditya Birla Nuvo announced that it was acquiring a controlling interest in the Future Group’s Pantaloon Format, a division of Pantaloon Retail India Ltd. Pantaloon Format, which has 65 stores in 35 cities, will be first de-merged from Pantaloon Retail. Aditya Birla Nuvo already has Madura Fashions in its stable with brands such as Louis Philippe, Allen Solly, Van Huesen and Peter England. “This acquisition will catapult Aditya Birla Nuvo to the pole position in the branded fashion space in all segments and [give the company] a pan-India presence,” Birla says.

For the cash-strapped Kishore Biyani, the CEO of the Future Group (as the Pantaloon Group is now called) the deal comes at a crucial time. He has been selling other assets, too. For Birla, this is a bargain. The economy has slowed down and stock prices are at their lowest point in several months. Pantaloon Retail, for instance, is around Rs. 130 (a little more than $2) against a 52-week high of Rs. 364. The share perked up after the deal was announced. Birla will invest $300 million in an arrangement involving both equity and convertible debentures.

The crisis in Biyani’s empire is an indication of the troubles facing India’s retail sector. This was supposed to be the big new area for jobs and growth. Many malls opened in recent years on the assumption that the government would allow foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail. But opposition political parties and even some members of the ruling coalition in Delhi have kept this critical reform at bay. The sector is now looking to consolidation as a means of survival. Businesses with money are sniffing around for potential purchases. According to bankers, several smaller companies are on the block.

For Birla, this is a way of writing a new mission statement for the group. Even today, around 80% of its turnover comes from commodities. This is an inheritance from Kumar’s father Aditya Birla. The other 20% — in services — is from Kumar Birla’s own contribution and inclination. Commodities will not fade away. But services will grow in importance in the years to come, experts note.

Close on the heels of the Pantaloon buy, on May 18 Birla picked up a 27.5% stake in Living Media India. This Aroon Purie-owned group publishes leading newsweekly India Today and a range of other owned and franchised titles (Business Today, Reader’s Digest, Cosmopolitan and Harvard Business Review, among others). It also has several new-generation media interests. In a statement to the Bombay Stock Exchange (group company TV Today is a listed entity), Living Media chairman Purie said that together with Birla, the firm will be able to “aggressively address the current and future potential of the media business, which is at a tipping point.” Added Birla: “The media sector is a sunrise sector from an investment point of view.”

Bucking the decades-old wave of offshoring of manufacturing jobs to China, other parts of Asia and Mexico, GE said it would move jobs back from these countries to the United States, where it will build water heaters.

Jeffrey Immelt, GE’s chairman and CEO, notes that his decision to invest $1 billion in GE’s appliance business in the U.S. is “as risky an investment as we have ever made”. Yet, this brand of “re-shoring” – returning to the U.S. some manufacturing jobs that were earlier shipped overseas — is expected to pick up over the next several years as momentum shifts somewhat away from  automatic decisions by U.S. manufacturers to operate lower-cost plants overseas. Factors encouraging this reversal include sharply rising relative manufacturing costs in China, accentuated by stagnant U.S. wages and productivity gains, steady renminbi appreciation, steeper transportation costs as oil prices rise and costlier maintenance of longer supply chains.

Hal Sirkin, a senior partner and managing director at the Boston Consulting Group, noted in this recent Knowledge@Wharton interview, that “wages are rising very quickly in China, somewhere on the order of 15% to 20% a year and maybe even higher. The renminbi … is rising at 4% a year.”

In February, GE Appliances announced it was opening a water heater plant at Appliance Park in Louisville, Ky., the first new plant at the site in more than 50 years. Eventually, GE plans to invest $800 million in Louisville, part of a $1 billion commitment to create 1,300 new jobs in the U.S. by 2014. Many of those jobs are being shifted from a water heater plant in China. In addition to standard manufacturing jobs, GE says the new facility will create “hundreds of highly skilled salaried jobs in fields like engineering, industrial design and manufacturing.”

So how big a trend might this re-shoring turn out to be? “Some jobs might return to the U.S., but not millions,” says Wharton management professor Marshall Meyer. “China now has an advantage in manufacturing infrastructure — both physical and human — for example, the availability of engineers. And countries like Vietnam and Indonesia will draw manufacturers seeking low-cost labor. Some Chinese companies are already outsourcing to Vietnam and Indonesia,” among other countries.

Wharton management professor Mauro Guillen points out that “Yes, because of rising wages and currency movements, Chinese costs are rising. And wait until the dollar takes a real hit. But keep in mind that other locations are now becoming attractive, for example, Vietnam and Bangladesh.”

Meanwhile, the evolving, global manufacturing landscape is turning up some valuable lessons regarding “the hidden costs of global supply chains, including their susceptibility to catastrophic collapse – such as in late 2008 — and to fuel prices today,” Meyer points out. Ocean shipping is one good example: “The carriers are all losing money, some [of them] billions, due to overcapacity and the high cost of bunker oil, which may go higher when they are forced to switch to low-emissions fuel. Inevitably, as in the airline industry, there will be industry consolidation reduced capacity, and much higher shipping prices.”

For Sirkin, though, the trend seems clear. “I think we’re still in the early stages. You see big companies like National Cash Register — NCR — that was manufacturing their ATMs in China for the U.S. and is now manufacturing in Columbus, Ga. You see Ford adding jobs into its plants. I think they committed to 12,000 jobs …. It’s also smaller companies. So Farouk Systems, which makes hair dryers, has moved 1,500 jobs back from China to the U.S. You see Coleman, the manufacturer of water coolers, starting to build water coolers in the U.S. ….”

And it some cases, it appears, companies are moving production back to the U.S, because they no longer want their designs and processes getting copied. Notes this Chicago Tribune article: Peerless Industries  “decided in 2009 to buy equipment to make in-house its aluminum mounts that are used to fix flat-panel televisions to walls. The move followed nearly a decade of dealing with Chinese companies copying their products, said Michael Campagna, the company’s president and chief operating officer.”

For further reading from Knowledge@Wharton Today: China’s Sinking Competitiveness