TALK TO ANY chief executive of an MNC in India, and they will emphasise how their company is an integral part of India’s development journey. Some even seek to underplay the ‘multinational’ tag and are keen to position their companies as domestic players. As India progresses towards its Viksit Bharat goal — a developed India by 2047 — multinationals doing business in India have emerged as key players in this journey. Take any important sector, and you will find MNCs playing a vital part, whether it is capital goods, pharmaceuticals, chemicals, automobiles, consumer electronics — the list is long. Fortune India’s maiden list of the top 500 multinationals in India — the Fortune India MNC 500 — the first such detailed compendium of the largest MNCs operating in the country, is therefore an important reference point.

The figures, too, tell the story of the importance of MNCs. As V. Keshavdev, who put together this list, writes in his opening essay, the numbers demonstrate both the heft and the depth of the MNCs in India: the list has a cumulative total income of a staggering ₹36.77 lakh crore ($438 billion) and a combined ₹2.25 lakh crore or $27 billion in profits. Slice and dice it, and some interesting trends emerge. There is serious clout at the top of the heap, with the top 10 MNCs accounting for over 28% of the total cumulative income of the MNC 500. The list features 49 fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) companies and 21 automobile companies. Take a look at the top 10, and you will understand the might of these MNCs and how deep their involvement in the India story goes. Topping the list of 500 is Suzuki Motor Corp., whose Maruti Suzuki is synonymous with the Indian automobile revolution. Next in the pecking order is Hyundai Motor Co. Group, another auto major that also has Kia in its fold. Nayara Energy, Walmart Inc. (with Flipkart and PhonePe), and the Samsung Group complete the top 5. As most experts we spoke to suggest, the key to the success of the MNCs operating in India is how deftly they have been able to localise to Indian consumer preferences, rather than merely superimposing their global strategies for the domestic market. India is a market no MNC today can afford to ignore, with its vast population and its position as the fifth-largest economy in the world.

Meanwhile, the Union Budget of 2025, announced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on February 1, came up with a bonanza for the middle class, long battling inflation and shrinking purchasing power. In one fell swoop, the finance minister made annual income up to ₹12 lakh tax-free, which, taken together with the standard deduction of ₹75,000, provides a major fillip aimed at providing more money in the hands of individuals in the hope that the move will boost consumption. For long, urban consumption has been a problem, and top business leaders had been calling for the government to do something about it. As Ashutosh Kumar writes, the onus of driving demand through consumption now lies with the middle class, while the government commendably continues on the path of fiscal consolidation, something that has also enabled the Reserve Bank of India to reduce the repo rate by 25 basis points, the first such cut in five years.