Niti Aayog’s grand plan to encourage more Indian firms to be among the top multinational corporations (MNCs) shows the current thinking in the government. It wants companies to achieve global size and is trying to figure out impediments that obstruct their growth.
Only seven Indian companies made it to the latest Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations in terms of revenue. Among them, Indian Oil Corp took the top spot with a global ranking of 137, RIL was a close second, followed by two other state-owned firms Oil and Natural Gas Corp and State Bank of India. US-based retail giant Walmart topped the rankings, but the next three positions are held by Chinese giants — State Grid Corporation of China, Sinopec and the China National Petroleum Corp.
Indian firms that went global in the early 2000s were dealt a heavy blow after the global financial crisis in 2008. Companies like Tata Motors and Hindalco which took over foreign giants, however, tempered their global ambitions. Several others that tried to expand into African and Latin American markets, too, faced a demand crunch and price fall, jeopardising their revenue models and debt repayments.
Can India make another effort? Can we create a global giant out of TCS, Infosys or Flipkart? The sky’s the limit for them but they need to start dreaming big again.
