India may be aiming to be a global business power in the years to come but the latest (2016) annual list of the world’s 2,000 largest and most powerful companies released by Forbes reveals that it has miles to go. To begin with, there is no Indian company in the top 100 companies. Further, India has 56 companies in the list as against 586 US companies and 249 Chinese companies. As compared to the last year’s list, the number of Indian companies has remained unchanged while both US and China have improved their tally from 579 and 232 companies respectively.
When we get down to the details, the largest Indian company, Reliance Industries, figures at number 121 in the list. It is followed by State Bank of India at number 149. However, both have improved their rankings from last year’s ranks of 142 and 152 respectively.
Like last year, the top three positions on the list continued to be the preserve of Chinese banks, namely, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China, despite a slowing Chinese economy. The top 10 positions are occupied by US and China-based companies, except Japan’s Toyota Motor at the 10th spot.
Among the other prominent Indian companies on the list are Oil and Natural Gas (220), ICICI Bank (266), HDFC Bank (275), Indian Oil (371), Tata Consultancy Services (385), NTPC (400), Coal India (465), Bharti Airtel (453), Axis Bank (484), Larsen and Toubro (505), Infosys (590), Bharat Petroleum (650), Wipro (755) and ITC (781).