IOC on top, RIL second in Fortune India 500 list

Fortune magazine's list of top 500 Indian companies ranks state-run Indian Oil Corporation as the as the country's biggest company in terms of annual revenue, followed by private sector giant Reliance Industries at the second place.

Indian Oil Corp (IOC) was the biggest with annual revenue of Rs4,75,867 crore, followed by Reliance Industries (RIL) with a full-year revenue of Rs4,09,883 crore.

This is followed by Bharat Petroleum (Rs2,44,822 crore) at the third place and Hindustan Petroleum (Rs2,17,771 crore) at fourth.

There are a total of six state-run companies in the top-ten positions, as against four from the private sector.

The list, based on annual revenues, also saw seven energy companies entering the top 10 slot among the country's 500 largest corporations.

Commenting on the performance of companies, Fortune wrote, "while sales growth has slowed, there are signs of recovery in profit. However, interest cost continues to be spoilsport."

"The good news is that the data shows that Indian companies are maturing... They are not letting up their determination to win the battle for talent - salaries and wages have actually grown, despite bad times," the magazine said.

Other entities coming in the top 10 ranking in the list are State Bank of India (5th), Tata Motors (6th), ONGC (7th), Tata Steel (8th), Essar Oil (9th) and Coal India (10th).

Interestingly, top eight companies have retained their respective ranks from the previous year, Fortune India said.

Other companies in the list include Bharti Airtel (12th), ICICI Bank (14th), NTPC (15th), Tata Consultancy Services (18th) and Infosys (27th).