Indian Oil leads 7 in Fortune 500 India list; Walmart tops
22 Jul 2017
Seven Indian companies have made it to the latest Fortune 500 list of the world's biggest corporations in terms of revenue.
Despite the gloom-and-doom projections for brick-and-mortar stores, retail giant Walmart tops the global rankings.
Indian Oil Corp is the only Indian firm in the top 200, being ranked 161st. ONGC, another state-run firm, has dropped out of the rankings for 2016, though oil firms continue to dominate the Indian presence. Private gems and jewellery firm Rajesh Exports has made its debut at 423rd position.
Asia is now home to more of the global giants than any other continent with 197 companies on the list, leaving North America (145) and Europe (143) vying for second spot. The rest of the world has a mere 15 companies on the list.
The US continues to have the largest presence on the elite list with 132 firms, but China is not too far behind at 109 and is leading the Asian drive to the top. Japan, with 51, is in third spot and South Korea has 15.
Among the seven Indian companies, four are from the public sector while Reliance Industries Ltd is the top-ranked among private sector firms, followed by Tata Motors and Rajesh Exports.
Among state-run majors, Indian Oil is followed by State Bank of India, Bharat Petroleum Ltd and Hindustan Petroleum Corp Ltd.
Indian Oil is ranked 161st with revenue of $54.7 billion (down from 119th last year), while RIL is now at 215th (down from 158th). Bharat Petroleum slipped from 280th to 358th this year and Hindustan Petroleum is at 367th, down from 327th.
However, Tata Motors and SBI have improved their position. While Tata Motors has taken the 226th position, up from 254th last year, SBI is ranked 232nd, up from 260th last year.
The overall list was topped by Walmart with revenue of $482,130 million, followed by State Grid (revenue of US $329,601 million) and China National Petroleum ($299,271 million).
Others in the global top 10 companies include Sinopec Group (4th, $294,344 million), Royal Dutch Shell (5th, $272,156 million), Exxon Mobil (6th, $246,204 million), Volkswagen (7th, $236,600 million), Toyota Motor (8th, $236,592 million), Apple (9th, $233,715 million) and BP (10th, $225,982 million).
The world's 500 largest companies generated $27.6 trillion in revenues and $1.5 trillion in profits in 2015, Fortune said.
Together, this year's Fortune Global 500 companies employ 67 million people worldwide and are represented by 33 countries, Fortune added.