48 Indian firms in Forbes' Global list
New Delhi   04-Apr-2008
After billionaire businessmen, it is the turn of companies from India to shine on Forbes radar with as many as 48 firms making it to a list of the world's biggest companies compiled by the US magazine. Led by India's most valued firm Reliance Industries and PSU major ONGC, all these 48 Indian firms named in the 'Global 2000 List' have a billion-dollar size in terms of market value. The rankings, topped by British banking behemoth HSBC, have been compiled on the basis of a composite score of sales, profit, assets and market-cap. HSBC is followed by industrial conglomerate General Electric, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase and Exxon Mobil—all four from the US— in the top five positions. Two Indian firms, Mukesh Ambani-promoted RIL and ONGC are among the top 200 companies at 193rd and 198th ranks. Earlier in March, Forbes had released its list of world's richest billionaires that included 53 Indian businessmen, with four of them — Lakshmi Mittal, Mukesh Ambani, Anil Ambani and KP Singh — figuring among the world's ten wealthiest. RIL and ONGC are followed by two PSU majors SBI (219th) and IndianOil (303rd), the country's biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank (374th) and state-run power generation major NTPC (41lth). The Indian presence is almost evenly divided among the private and state-run companies. While none of the Indian companies have managed to find a place among top 100, it has two firms run by people of Indian origin. Vikram Pandit-run banking giant Citigroup and Lakshmi Mittal-headed steel behemoth Arcelor Mittal are at 24th and 38th positions respectively. Other Indian companies on the list include SAIL (647th) and Tata Steel (738th), Bharti Airtel (826th) and Reliance Communications (846th), TCS (927), HDFC (949th), L&T (961st) and BPCL (967th).