Reliance Industries jumps two places on Fortune's Global 500 list

Oil-to-telecom-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd continues to be the highest-ranked Indian firm on the Fortune Global 500 list, jumping two places to be ranked at No.86 in the 2024 ranking.

The firm was placed at No.88 in last year's ranking and has gained a whopping 69 places in the last three years - from being placed at No.155 in 2021 to being at No.86 in 2024.

Releasing the 2024 list, Fortune on its website said Reliance has been on the 500 list for 21 years now. It had revenues of $ 108.8 billion and a profit of $ 8.4 billion last year.

 

The 2024 ranking has nine Indian firms, five of them from the public sector.

Insurance behemoth Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) jumped 12 places to be ranked at No.95 on the 2024 list while state-owned Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) slid 22 places to 116.

State Bank of India (SBI) soared 57 spots to rank at No.178.

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd (BPCL) were ranked at No.180 and No.258 after they slid 22 and 25 spots respectively. Tata Motors was ranked at No.271, up 66 spots. HDFC Bank at No.306 and Rajesh Exports at No.463 were the other Indian firms on the list.

US retailer Walmart remains No.1 for the 11th consecutive year while Amazon reached a new high to claim No.2 spot (up from No.4 last year), according to Fortune.

Saudi Aramco fell to No.4 from being at No.2 in 2023; however, with $ 121 billion in profits, it was the most profitable company on the list for the third year in a row.

Chinese state-owned electric utility State Grid is ranked at No.3 on the list which also has two other Chinese firms in top 10 - Sinopec Group at No.5 and China National Petroleum at No.6.

Apple was ranked below them at No.7.

"The Fortune Global 500 is our annual ranking of the largest 500 corporations worldwide as measured by total revenue," Fortune said. "Companies are ranked by total revenues for their respective fiscal years ended on or before March 31, 2024.

The corporations on the annual list of the world's 500 largest companies posted near-flat, but still record-breaking aggregate revenues of $ 41 trillion in 2023, with a year-over-year increase of 0.1 per cent, it added.