Tata Steel, Wipro in world's most ethical companies list

Two Indian companies, Tata Steel and Wipro, have been named in the list of world's most ethical companies by American think tank Ethisphere Institute.

Wipro is one of the two information technology companies named in the list, the other being Xerox Corporation.

Tata Steel is also one of the two companies named in the metals, minerals and mining space. US-based Schnitzer Steel Industries Inc is the other company in this segment.

Ford Motor Company has been named one of the World's Most Ethical companies for the eighth straight year. The list is dominated by US-based companies as around 98 of the 124 companies are from that country.

Also, there are 13 eleven-time honorees and eight first-timers in the list.

Ethisphere honours those companies that recognise their role in society to influence and drive positive change in the business community and societies around the world.

''Over the last eleven years we have seen an impressive shift in societal expectations, aggressive emergence of new laws and regulation and geopolitical swings that can further disrupt the balance. We have also seen how companies honored as the World's Most Ethical respond to these challenges. They invest in their local communities around the world, embrace strategies of diversity and inclusion and focus on long term-ism as a sustainable business advantage. In short, these companies are transformative, not just out of need, but because they recognize that integrity is the key to their advancement,'' Ethisphere CEO Timothy Erblich said while congratulating the 2017 honorees.

According to Ethisphere, ''The notion that the financial value and ethics are inexorably tied together has been explained through an analysis of how the stock price of publicly-traded 2017 honorees compare to the S&P 500 over the last two years.''

The analysis demonstrates a 6.4-per cent premium Ethisphere refers to as an 'ethics premium.'

"These companies also consider the impact of their actions on their employees, investors, customers and other key stakeholders and leverage values and a culture of integrity as the underpinnings to the decisions they make each day," Ethisphere Institute said.

"Companies we've honored as World's Most Ethical take a novel response to the shift in societal expectations, constant redefinition of laws and regulations, and the geo-political climate," Ethisphere's chief executive Timothy Erblich said.

"Strong ethics and corporate citizenship are the foundation of our business philosophy, which demonstrates to our customers what we stand for as a company," Ford Motor Company executive chairman Bill Ford said.