India Inc. Shines Through Travails
“Success is not about how high you can climb, but how well you bounce back from the fall.” — Richard Branson, Founder, Virgin Group
DEAR READER,
Fiscal 2022-23 was a challenging year for the world and for India because of uncertainties that arose from heightened geopolitical tensions and the impact they had on trade relations and investment flows. Even so, India Inc. powered through – showing great resilience. We map the India growth story in our annual BW Real 500 rankings, in partnership with TechSci Research, that has selected only listed organisations based on their total income generated in the 2022-2023 fiscal.
Some findings of this study stand out. First, the top 15 companies account for nearly 71 per cent of the cumulative income generated by the top 50 companies and almost 50 per cent of the total income generated by all 500 companies in the list. Secondly, the top 50 companies accounted for over 70 per cent of the total income generated by all the 500 companies. However, the top five companies in the BW Real 500 list could generate a combined total income of Rs 38.7 lakh crore, a significant drop from the FY2022 numbers of Rs 100.34 lakh crore, clearly reflecting the global headwinds. Reliance Industries (RIL) continued its great run, emerging as India’s largest and most profitable private sector company once more. In FY2023, RIL was not just India’s largest company by market capitalisation (Rs 17,72,456 crore), it was also the largest by revenue (Rs 9,74,864 crore).
Tata Motors also gave a good account of itself in a challenging environment, showing a 24 per cent jump in revenue amid rising input costs. Central public-sector entities (CPSEs) in the oil and gas sector too demonstrated their resilience in FY2023, led by Indian Oil Corporation, ONGC, BPCL among others. The total dividend receipts from the CPSEs in FY2023 stood at Rs 59,533 crore, overtaking budgetary estimates. Compared to FY2022 though, the aggregate net profits of the CPSEs declined by 15 per cent to Rs 2.12 lakh crore, owing mainly to the decline in the earnings of oil-marketing companies and the vulnerability of steel companies to global commodity price cycles.
Over the years, the BW Real 500 list has come to be known as the most definitive indicator of Corporate India’s health and India Inc.’s aspirations. I am sure businesses and industry, policymakers, and our readers in general, will find the study engrossing. The Aditya Birla Group has recently entered the paint industry and we give ‘The Last Word’ to Kumar Mangalam Birla, as he spells out the vision for the brand. Of course, we also bring to you all our regular features and columns.
Happy reading!
