12 Indian companies make it to Hurun Global 500 list; Wipro, Asian Paints, HCL new entrants

Twelve Indian companies made it to the list of the top-500 valued companies this year against 11 in the year-ago period, the Hurun Global 500 list shows. Wipro (ranked 457th), Asian Paints (477th) and HCL Technologies (498th) made it to the coveted list for the first time this year.

The ranking of many Indian companies, including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), HDFC Bank, HDFC and Bharti Airtel, saw a decline compared to the last year.

The Indian companies were led by oil-to-telecom giant Reliance Industries Ltd. (RIL), with a valuation at $188 billion, up 11 per cent, and Tata Consultancy Services with a valuation at $164 billion, followed by HDFC Bank at $113 billion.

"Around 49 per cent or 240 of the non-India Hurun Global 500 have a regional presence in India, spread across ten cities, led by Mumbai with 86, and followed by Bengaluru with 52, Gurugram 32, New Delhi 30 and Pune with 13," the Hurun report said.

Kotak Mahindra Bank's valuation declined 8 per cent to $46.6 billion, which led to a fall of 96 places on the list to 380th rank, while its larger rival ICICI Bank saw its valuation rise 36 per cent to $62 billion, which resulted in its global ranking improving 48 places to 268th, the Hurun Rich list showed.

"Two-thirds of Indian companies featured in the list are from financial services and software services. In the coming years, the startup revolution in the country would help India contribute more companies to Hurun Global 500," said Anas Rahman Junaid, Managing Director and Chief Researcher, Hurun India.

The Hurun Global 500 list is led by the US (243), followed by China (47), Japan (30) and the UK (24). India rose above Australia to 9th, with 12 companies -- 8 in Mumbai, 2 in Bengaluru and one in each of Noida and New Delhi. Financial services and software led the way, with 4 companies, followed by telecommunications with 2.

Globally, Apple is the most valuable company. It saw its valuation jump 15 per cent to $2.4 trillion. Apple, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet, also known as the "big 4", doubled in value since the COVID-19 outbreak, which took their combined value to $8 trillion, making up 14 per cent of Hurun Global 500.

Also read: Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani see spectacular rise in wealth; India adds 40 billionaires in 2020: Hurun