Vikram Pandit-run Citigroup was ranked 20th on the list, followed by Pepsico (41) which is headed by Indra Nooyi.
Among other major US corporations run by persons of Indian origin include Motorola Mobility Holdings led by Sanjay K Jha, which was positioned at the 206th rank, MasterCard run by Ajaypal S Banga was at the 370th slot, Cognizant Technology Solutions run by Francisco D'Souza was at 398th and SanDisk headed by Sanjay Mehrotra was at 430th rank.
Exxon Mobil bumped off Wal-Mart from the first place, which the retail giant held on to for two years in a row, thanks to rising oil prices, particularly during the last quarter of 2011.
It is the 13th time that Exxon has taken first place, and the sixth time that Exxon and Wal-Mart have traded the top two positions during the past decade, Fortune said.
Shares of Exxon Mobil rose by 20 per cent and profits surged by 35 per cent to USD 41.1 billion. Revenues jumped 28 per cent to USD 452.9 billion, helping Exxon reclaim the top spot in the Fortune 500.
Two other petroleum companies -- Chevron and ConocoPhillips -- were ranked in the third and fourth position in the coveted list.
Auto giant General Motors jumped three spots in the list, to the fifth position from number 8th last year.
Others in the top 10, include General Electric (6th), Berkshire Hathaway (7th), Fannie Mae (8th), Ford Motor (9th) and Hewlett-Packard in the 10th rank.
"...The Fortune 500 are thriving as a group. Unlike the US economy, they've shown quicksilver agility, rapidly shifting their product mix and producing more goods at little new cost," Fortune's senior editor-at-large Shawn Tully said.
The Fortune 500 generated a total of USD 824.5 billion in earnings last year, up 16.4 per cent over 2010. That beats the previous record of USD 785 billion, set in 2006 during a roaring economy, the magazine said.
Notwithstanding the fact that the US economy began expanding again in late 2009, the Fortune 500 firms have been reluctant to hire more workers, who account for almost 70 per cent of their total costs.
At present, the Fortune 500 employs 25.8 million people worldwide, up by less than 1 per cent since 2007. And US companies are simply keeping wages even with inflation, granting average raises of 2 per cent in 2011.
Interestingly, financial services sector is experiencing a comeback of sorts.
For 2011, the sector posted USD 150 billion in earnings, up 19 per cent over 2010. That's far from its peak in the mid-2000s, but a big stride from the USD 213 billion loss that the industry suffered in the crisis year of 2008.
