Infosys campus in Bengaluru

BENGALURU: For the first time in recent years, an Indian company is among the top 5 in Forbes’ annual list of the World’s Best Regarded Companies. Infosys stood at No. 3 in the 2019 list, after Visa and Ferrari. It was at No. 31 last year, and then too, it held the best rank among Indian companies.

Infosys was followed this year by Netflix, Paypal, Microsoft, Walt Disney, Toyota, Mastercard and Costco in the top 10. Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS ) stood at No. 22, up from No. 35 in 2018.

Forbes said it partnered with German statistics company Statista to cull its annual list of the world’s 2,000 largest public companies down to the top 250 best-regarded businesses. The ranking was based on trustworthiness, social conduct, the strength of the companies’ products and services, and how they fare as employers. To gather data, Statista surveyed 15,000 respondents from more than 50 countries.

In 2018, at least 12 Indian firms were part of the 250.

Tata, TCS figure in ’19 Forbes list

Apart from Infosys and TCS, there were Tata Motors , Tata Steel, and L&T. Most of the 2018 companies are in the 2019 list too, and many of them in improved positions.

It’s not clear why Infosys’s rank rose so sharply in 2019. In India, it has long been the gold standard in corporate governance. The company was among the pioneers of the global delivery model and became the first Indian company to be listed on the Nasdaq. In the past year, the company has been performing better than most of its peers. It ended the last fiscal with a revenue of $11.8 billion, and boasts of a market capitalisation of $46.7 billion.

