The wheel of ‘Fortune’
Fortune magazine has been annually ranking 500 global corporations on various financial parameters. IE had pointed to the dominance of American companies for the greater part of the 20th century, occupying majority of the slots in the Top 10. The ascent of Japan towards the closing decades of the century resulted in Japanese Sogoshoshas (international trading companies) accounting for six of the Top 10 followed by the US with 3, with Netherlands at the 10th (1996) .
The rankings in 2000 showed the US regaining the top four slots with General Motors at the top followed by Walmart, Exxon and Ford Motors. Japan still accounted for four out of the ten. The German giant, Daimler Chrysler, occupied the fifth position.
The ascent of China in the new millennium and the dominance of the oil sector were witnessed in the ranking of 2010. Walmart continued its dominance and remained at the top. In the rankings of 2010, America occupied the first (Walmart) and the third slots (Exxon). Japan still held two slots: the 5th (Toyota) and 6th (Japan Post Holdings) and China occupied the 7th, 8th and 10th positions (China Petrochemicals, State Grid Corp of China and China National Petroleum Corp). Netherlands (2nd), Britain (4th) and France (9th) had one each.
Move another ten years to 2020: Walmart still at the top with revenues of $ 523.96 billion, followed by three Chinese companies (Sinopec – 2nd, State Grid – 3rd and China National Petroleum – 4th). Netherlands (Royal Dutch – 5th) , Saudi Arabia (Saudi Aramco – 6th), Germany (Volkswagen – 7th), Britain (British Petroleum – 8th), USA (Amazon – 9th) and Japan (Toyota Motors – 10th) followed.
Where are the Indian companies in this list? In 2000, Indian Oil, ranked 232, was the only company in Fortune 500. By 2010, 8 Indian companies were listed in the 500: Indian Oil (125), followed by Reliance (175). State Bank, BPCL, HPCL, Tata Steel, ONGC and Tata Motors were the other companies.
In the 2020 listings Reliance (96) with revenues of $ 86.27 billion was way ahead of Indian Oil (151) with revenues of $ 69.24 billion. ONGC, SBI, BPCL, Tata Motors and Rajesh Exports were the other Indian companies in the F500 ratings.
With the huge surge in the stock market, market caps of several Indian companies have expanded substantially. It should be interesting to see the listings of top Indian companies for 2021.
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