On Top of the World: 56 Indian Firms Feature in Forbes 'Global 2000'

The number of Indian companies that feature in the 14th edition of the annual list of the biggest and most valuable public companies in the world remains the same as last year. However, many Indian firms have improved their rankings.

Reliance Industries Limited leads the group of 56 Indian companies in The Forbes Global 2000 list. The conglomerate holding company, which owns businesses across India engaged in energy, petrochemicals, textiles, natural resources, retail and telecommunications, improved its ranking this year to 121 from 142 last year, with a market value of $50.6 billion and assets worth $91.5 billion.

Among the other Indian companies on the list are State Bank of India ranked 149, Oil & Natural Gas (220), Tata Motors (278), Indian Oil (371), Tata Consultancy Services (385), Bharti Airtel (453), Coal India (465), Infosys (590), Bharat Petroleum (650), Wipro (755), Punjab National Bank (866), Mahindra and Mahindra (901), Bank of India (1050) and Tata Steel (1178).

The Forbes Global 2000 ranking is based on a composite score from equally-weighted measures of revenue, profits, assets and market value. The 2016 list features public companies from 63 countries that together account for $35 trillion in revenue, $2.4 trillion in profit, $162 trillion of assets, and have a combined market value of $44 trillion.

Overall, 586 US companies made the list, compared to 249 from China (mainland and Hong Kong), 219 from Japan, 92 from the United Kingdom and 67 from South Korea. Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, China Construction Bank and Agricultural Bank of China held on to the top three spots in the list. The biggest US public companies include Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (4), Apple (8), Bank of America (11), Walmart (15), Microsoft (23), IBM (41) and Goldman Sachs (77).