Indian Giants

By Ramesh Akkineni

from an article in Financial Express

Oil giant ONGC has built up a huge presence for itself, registering a rank of 265, closely followed by State Bank of India at No. 269 and also Indian Oil at No. 279. The only private player near the world's top 300 is Reliance Industries at No. 309.

While at first glance there is not much to cheer about, but the fact remains that India has breached a citadel that was the exclusive preserve of the West and Japan. The general impression is that the United States and Europe would be strong enough to virtually corner the first 500 companies' rank.

However, that is not the case, according to Forbes magazine. The list of high and mighty who are looking up at these Indian upstarts, non-entities just a decade ago, reads like a who's who: at No. 325 is Gillette, at No. 330 is Mitsubishi Electric, at No. 339 is Coca Cola Enterprises, at No. 344 is Lucent Technologies, at No. 369 is Hitachi, at No. 374 is Nike and at No. 376 is Colgate-Palmolive.

While the leaders at the top of Forbes 2000 are far and way ahead of the Indian companies, yet, if the desi brigade sticks to its present growth path, we may well see an Indian corporate bash its way through the 100 barrier in the foreseeable future.

In fact, India has pushed eight companies in the top 1,000, including NTPC (486), ICICI (757), SAIL (831), Bharat Petroleum (914), indicating that it is not a flash-in-the-pan kind of performance by a single company. It adds greater lustre to the Indian economy, indicating that it is vibrant and thriving across many a sector. It also indicates that Indian politicians, for once, have chosen the nation's economic policies well.

Considering that all these MNCs have had at least a 50-year headstart against the Indian companies, this achievement is really worth treasuring. India Inc got freedom when the economy was opened up in the late 1980s, and these home-grown companies have moved very fast and very quickly to corner glory. Where they will be in half-a-century can well be imagined.

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