IT’S A BUSTLING afternoon in Nariman Point, where history and modernity collide in the city’s oldest central business district, located less than a mile from the iconic Gateway of India—initially conceived as a cardboard structure to commemorate the 1911 arrival of King-Emperor George V and Queen-Empress Mary. Shared cabs zigzag through the labyrinth of narrow streets, competing with lumbering BEST buses ferrying officegoers clutching files and sling-bags. The chaotic serenity is punctuated by the occasional gleam of a Merc or Beamer, gliding past with an air of effortless affluence. On the sidewalks, amid a tantalising aroma of Indian spices, vendors showcase their culinary craft with the rhythmic clatter of spatulas on shiny but tarred woks—serving up a sensory symphony of hustle, flavour, and ambition, intertwined with the relentless tempo of India’s storied financial capital. 

Rising above the cacophony, on the 14th floor of Boston Consulting Group’s India headquarters, I sit across from Janmejaya Sinha, anticipating a structured conversation on what it takes to make it big in India. Instead, the 65-year-old chairman—who joined BCG India as employee No. 16 in 1998 and now leads an over 3,500-member strong consulting business—narrates an anecdote that cuts to the core of why multinationals thrive or perish in India. “In 2004,” he recounts, “a client came to us, determined to sell $10,000 televisions in India. At the time, most Indians didn’t even earn that much in a year. But he was convinced: ‘India has a billion people. Surely, we can sell at least a thousand TVs.” 

Sinha pauses, a flicker of bemusement crossing his face. “He told me, ‘We sell these TVs in Europe all the time.’ I wanted to ask, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ but of course, I held my tongue as he was paying the bill!” 

In fact, because the old Sahar airport in Mumbai was in the middle of slums, Sinha--so as to showcase a good image of India--had him land in Delhi first, and later fly into the relatively better domestic Santacruz airport. Sinha hoped the journey from the capital to India’s commercial hub would serve as a reality check. And it did, albeit not in the way Sinha anticipated. Since the CEO could not get a view of the slum, he ended up believing there was a market for $10,000 TVs! So during the India review meet, when the local team argued against the potential for the high-end TV, the CEO concluded: ‘India is disappointing.’ He had no interest in adapting his products for the market. ‘These are our TVs,’ he told me. ‘Take it or leave it.’” Unsurprisingly, the European client left-convinced that there was no need to customise his product, in doing so left the room wide open for the aspiring South Koreans chaebols to enter. 

Indeed, the likes of LG and Samsung took a different approach. They didn’t try to sell $10,000 luxury products to a nascent market. Instead, they localised. “LG didn’t focus on picture quality and aesthetics; they worked on boosting the volume because in India’s noisy neighbourhoods and slums, you need a loud TV,” Sinha says, adding “while that European client expressed his disappointment, LG and Samsung quietly captured the market.” 

The story isn’t just about TVs—it’s a lesson for every multinational corporation (MNC) hoping to crack the Indian market. Success here isn’t about “transplanting” global products or strategies but more about “adapting” to the layered complexities of a country that is at once a luxury market, a mass market, and everything in between. 

As sunlight streams through the floor-to-ceiling windows of BCG’s office overlooking the Arabian Sea, Sinha leans forward and, in a sagely tone, says: “India won’t change for you. You have to change for India.” 

It is this strikingly prescient observation that forms the backdrop against which Fortune India, for the first time ever, has compiled a definitive list of the largest MNCs by revenue—an effort that highlights their pivotal role and decisive standing in shaping India’s evolving economic story. The development comes at a time when the government has rolled out the red carpet for multinationals to manufacture in India, offering production-linked incentives across 14 sectors with an outlay of ₹1.97 lakh crore. 

Yet there’s a revelatory statistic: the combined revenue of ₹77.72 lakh crore ($925 billion) generated by the top 345 Indian privately owned companies—excluding PSUs, MNCs, and banks—of Fortune 500 India is double the Fortune India MNC 500’s cumulative revenue of ₹36.76 lakh crore ($438 billion)! (Refer to method-ology on page 180).

But let’s not chest-thump to the Viksit Bharat sloganeering, for here’s a humbling fact-check: the foreign corporations in the list are masters of their respective universes. 

For instance, in online retail, Walmart and Amazon stand unrivalled; Samsung, BBK, and Apple dominate consumer electronics, the dominance is all pervasive across automobiles, capital goods, FMCG, IT-hardware, telecom gear and beyond.  

In sectors such as automobiles, consumer electronics, and FMCG, a relatively modest number of firms—21 in automobiles, 17 in consumer electronics, and 49 in FMCG—collectively amass staggering revenues. For instance, the automobile sector alone boasts a total income exceeding ₹5.91 lakh crore (approximately $70.36 billion) and profits around ₹38,851 crore ($4.63 billion). Similarly, the consumer electronics sector, with just 17 firms, generates income of about ₹4.81 lakh crore (around $57.29 billion) and profits of ₹15,903 crore (approximately $1.89 billion). FMCG firms aggregate over ₹4.03 lakh crore in income with profits nearing ₹38,903 crore. This concentration in each sector points to large MNCs not only capturing significant market share but also driving in-novation, supply chain efficiencies, and economies of scale that small domestic firms often cannot match. 

The hot-steppers

The Top 10 names reflect the evolving landscape of multinational businesses in the country, underscoring a tale of two eras: one steeped in history and the other born of modern economic liberalisation. Amid the global giants, two names stand apart for their early embrace of the Indian market—Suzuki Motor Corp. (SMC) and Hindustan Unilever (HUL). 

SMC made its foray into India in 1981, well before the winds of eco-nomic liberalisation swept across the subcontinent. Suzuki’s partnership with Maruti transformed the Indian automobile market, making car ownership a reality for the burgeoning middle class. Today, the brand’s dominance in the Indian auto sector underscores its early mover advantage and ability to adapt to local consumer needs. Post 1991 saw the entry of Hyundai Motor Co., ranked second on the list. Its success in India is a microcosm of its global ambitions, with localised manufacturing and design playing pivotal roles. 

The two players today have a stranglehold on the passenger car market with SMC holding the fort with a share of 40.66% and Hyundai along with sibling Kia Motors holding close to 20%. Delving on Suzuki’s success, R.C. Bhargava, who joined Maruti in 1981 as the marketing director and is now the chairman, tells Fortune India, “Besides Maruti Suzuki and, to an extent, Hyundai, none of the other multinationals who came to India were really small car manufacturers. Even those that did were not in the low-cost category.” 

SMC’s success in India is a testament to its unwavering focus and strategic prioritisation of the market. Unlike other global automakers, Suzuki made India central to its global strategy, transforming itself into an integral part of the country’s auto ecosystem. 

One of the key drivers of this success was Suzuki’s unparalleled dedication to the Indian market, exemplified by the personal involvement of its leader-ship. “And I think another reason is the commitment to India in terms of their overall strategy,” says Bhargava. “Suzuki made a much larger commitment to India. It was not just a major player elsewhere in the world operating in many countries; India became one of its most important markets. The amount of time and attention devoted by Suzuki, including by then-president Osamu Suzuki, was unparalleled.” 

In some sense, Suzuki’s dominance is not just a testament to its early mover advantage but also to its strategic vision and unwavering commitment to the market. In fact, Toyota Motor Corp. Group, ranked No. 7 in the MNC 500, had entered the automotive space in 1997 as a joint venture with the Kirloskar Group but was largely on the fringes of the passenger vehicles (PV) market, till it found a second coming. Following a strategic tie-up with SMC in 2017 aimed at leveraging each company’s strengths to develop new vehicles and technologies, today, Toyota is the sixth-largest PV maker with 5% market share on the back of rebadged Maruti cars that make up for over 50% of its models sold in the country.  

The reason for SMC’s wider hold, says Bhargava, is the fact that the firm has its ear to the ground. “You can’t just treat India as one of the 20 big markets in the world. It’s important to create a tailor-made strategy. Unlike many multinationals that run companies with their own expats, Suzuki relied heavily on inputs from Indian management for decision-making,” he says.  

While the automotive land- scape in India is now firmly entrenched in the hands of MNCs, in the case of HUL—which began its India sojourn back in 1933, making it one of the oldest multinationals to set up shop in the country—its trajectory mirrors India’s colonial and post-colonial economic evolution. From pioneering soaps and packaged goods to becoming a household name synonymous with everyday essentials, HUL’s legacy has been an example of endurance and adaptation. But, as former HUL CEO Sanjiv Mehta explains, the industry dynamics of FMCG and auto are like chalk and cheese.  

“Today, HUL has 39% value market share. The auto industry is not as fragmented as the FMCG sector because the barriers to entry in the FMCG business are relatively much lower. That means you have to be continuously on guard, even as you consolidate your position,” says Mehta, who is now the executive chairman of L Catterton India, a consumer-focussed joint investment venture between LVMH and Mehta. 

At ₹62,911 crore in revenues and ₹10,277 crore in profits, it’s the only FMCG major in the Top 10; that’s a commendable position to be in despite rising competition. Sriprakash Sridharan, former director of Nielsen, a market analytics firm, and now the founder of Prajna Consulting, a boutique marketing and strategy consulting firm, says: “With India becoming digital, the ways of doing business have also evolved and changed. We now see national players and regional players dominating in the food space more than the MNCs. Home-grown players such as Nykaa, Tira, Forest Essentials, and Kama are making some dent in the premium and masstige personal care space which was once considered MNCs’ forte.”

Mehta, though, is quick to point out that despite all the news flow around the upstarts cornering incremental market share, HUL numbers are what still matters. “In my last year (FY23), HUL added ₹8,000 crore to its delta turnover, which was more than the total revenue of all the players that we’re talking about. So, many times, the optics are very different from reality because, in newspapers, a lot of space is given to companies doing ₹300-500 crore turnovers. But all that, put together, is not going to be dramatically different,” explains Mehta.

During his decade-long stint, HUL not only drove exponential financial growth but also redefined industry benchmarks for profitability, market share, and market capitalisation. “During my 10 years, we added ₹35,000 crore to HUL’s top line,” Mehta recalls.

“It was ₹25,000 crore before I came in. We took margins from 14% to 24% and market capitalisation from ₹1.2 lakh crore to ₹6.2 lakh crore,” says Mehta, who is close to wrapping up a book on leadership based on his tenure across Unilever geographies. The reference to ₹35,000 crore is significant, considering that it eclipses the total turnover of HUL’s next biggest competitor Nestlé, which ranks at 36 with a total income of ₹25,370 crore. While Wilmar International is hot on the heels of HUL at 11th position, its product portfolio is not as diverse. (More details on page 120). 

While HUL and Maruti have a pre-liberalisation history, others in the Top 10 club, barring Nayara Energy (formerly Essar Oil), are the poster-boys of post-1991 reforms. Hyundai and Samsung from South Korea; Walmart and Apple from the US; BBK Electronics from China; and global consulting giant Accenture represent a diverse array of industries and geographies. Yet, their commonality lies in the opportunities unlocked by India’s post-liberalisation economic frame-work and the growing affluence of the middle class fuelled by rising credit. These firms exemplify a modern India that is both a lucrative market and a strategic hub for global operations. 

“India’s population and the growing middle class is definitely a catchy point for any MNC to enter into the market. With India being one of the fastest-growing emerging markets and among the Top 5 GDPs in the world, the interest level is always there... Even if you win in certain states in India, the opportunity size is as big as a country,” says Sridharan. 

Walmart, a brick-and-mortar retail behemoth in the US, has made its mark in the online retail landscape following the $16-billion acquisition of Flipkart in 2018. “Earlier there were a lot of hindrances in winning in the Indian market, especially if the market was a big traditional trade market, and you needed to have the distribution might to win. With e-commerce and quick commerce gaining traction along with growing modern trade, the distribution game has changed completely,” explains Sridharan, also the author of Building Blocks, a book on leadership. 

While tech consulting firms such as Accenture have leveraged India’s burgeoning talent pool, Apple, once considered a premium niche brand, has expanded its footprint dramatical-ly, buoyed by local assembly operations and a young, aspirational consumer demographic. Similarly, in the mass premium category, BBK Electronics—the parent company of smartphone brands such as Oppo, vivo, OnePlus, and Realme—has captured the pulse of India’s tech-savvy youth (More details on page 110).

These companies—which collectively account for more than a fourth (₹85,316 crore) of the cumulative MNC 500 revenue—not only define the upper echelons of the Fortune India MNC 500 but also embody the rise of peak consumerism. 

The late bloomers

Interestingly, the capital goods and industrial engineering sectors, which cumulatively account for ₹2.91 lakh crore of the MNC universe, has found a fresh whiff of life post 2014 on the back of higher government spending even as traditional industrial conglomerates are taking a fancy to consumer-oriented businesses after the pandemic. Not surprising that the likes of GE and Hitachi which have been in the country since the colonial era, are making the most of the new-found momentum in the Indian economy. Well-established corporations such as Siemens, Hitachi, GE, Cummins, Schneider, ABB, Alstom SA, and Honeywell dominate the capital goods pack with total income of ₹2 lakh crore and a market cap of ₹5.78 lakh crore. 

At the forefront of Hitachi’s expansive operations in India is Bharat Kaushal, who heads the Hitachi Group here. Reflecting on its deep-rooted presence, Kaushal notes, “Hitachi first set foot outside of Japan in India in the 1930s, establishing the longest and first overseas presence of the company. Post-independence, Hitachi played a pivotal role in key national projects—delivering the first locomotive for Indian Railways in 1953, setting up India’s first telephone exchange, and supplying turbines for the Bhakra Nangal Dam in 1958. These milestones underscore Hitachi’s longstanding commitment to India’s growth.” 

Over the past five years, the focus within the capital goods sector has shifted towards manufacturing, defence, railways, and industrials, driven by substantial government spending. “The government’s investment in these sectors has been a game-changer,” Kaushal says. Hitachi has strategically aligned itself with these priorities, contributing to projects like modernising the Indian Railways, enhancing energy infra-structure, and supporting urbanisation through smart city initiatives. 

Government spending remains a critical driver of growth in India’s capital goods sector. “The government acts as a major spender, providing the impetus for large-scale projects in railways, energy, and urban infra-structure,” Kaushal states. Reflecting on the immense potential, Kaushal emphasises, “With an estimated ₹20,000-40,000 crore investment in modernisation projects over the next six to seven years, Hitachi aims to target at least 15% of this opportunity, leveraging our extensive expertise and historical presence.” 

Serving it right

Even as industrial and engineering companies are looking to make the most of the government’s infra spending gravy train, there are others in the consumer-facing business, especially food and retail, that have played to their strengths or faltered on their weakness. For instance, quick service restaurants (QSRs) and retail multinationals have carved their paths, testing the waters with master franchising before fully committing to the complexities of the Indian market. Gaurav Marya, who owns Franchise India Holdings, one of Asia’s largest integrated franchise solution companies, explains the cautious yet calculated entry of QSR giants into India.

“Most of the times, even the big boys enter [the market] through franchisees,” says Marya, citing examples such as McDonald’s and Starbucks. This initial franchising phase allows these brands to adapt to local tastes and regulations with a reduced risk, leveraging local partners’ market knowledge.

As these ventures mature, companies transition from franchising to establishing a more permanent presence. “They would look at a franchisee as a model and eventually in their con-tract, they would have an opportunity to eventually come in and own the identity in India,” Marya explains. This shift often corresponds with the brand’s confidence in the market, dictated by customer acceptance and operational success.

The journey of beverage titans such as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo mirror a similar narrative of adaptation but with unique challenges due to India’s diverse palate and regulatory environment. Marya points out, “It’s a financial call. Sometimes pure royalty is a much better business.” This statement reflects the companies’ initial strategies of licensing and royalties that minimise operational headaches while assessing the market’s profitability. 

PepsiCo, navigating through its partnership with Varun Beverages, found a successful formula. “Pepsi is happier having a fixed royalty coming to them because that adds to their bottom line globally, versus handling a complex operation of India,” Marya observes. Compared to Coca-Cola, this approach allowed PepsiCo to enjoy the gains without the direct strain of managing operations. 

In the retail segment, firms such as Skechers illustrate a successful transition from partnership to ownership. Initially entering through a partner-ship with the Future Group, Skechers took full control, “eventually bought them out and now they’re Skechers India,” says Marya. This move was spurred by the brand’s understanding and the need to capitalise on the growing Indian market for footwear. 

In contrast, other brands have wilted under the harsh sun of competition and regulatory pressures. Marya points to the nuanced understand-ing required to succeed. “India is very peculiar as a market... Some brands do particularly better than other brands in India,” he says. This statement underscores the failures of brands like Muji, which struggled to resonate with Indian consumers’ expectations. 

Sinha of BCG believes that though India has become a significant market, it remains a hard place to do business. “But there is a great opportunity. Between 2020 and 2030, India will add two Indias to itself. From $2 trillion to $7 trillion, we’ll add as much to the global GDP as the whole of EU. The biggest problem is we cannot know how to imagine this. No one can. Because the experience comes in the way,” says Sinha. 

That’s precisely the reason that while some MNCs have chosen to stay put and build heft, others have chosen to exit or smartly cash in on the excess multiples the Street is willing to pay. 

Different strokes for different folks

While HUL continues to strengthen its market position, Wilmar, a Singapore-based agro commodities giant, has made its mark in the FMCG space through a joint venture with Adani called Adani Wilmar Ltd (AWL). Though the Adanis are no longer a part of the JV, Kuok Khoon Hong, Chairman and CEO of Wilmar International, wants to still double down on India. “We will be keen to have good strategic partners as we think India will be a very big and important player in the global agri commodities and food businesses,” says Kuok. Wilmar’s growth strategy includes organic growth and strategic acquisitions, highlighted by acquisitions of the premium basmati rice brand Kohinoor in May 2022, and a 67% stake in specialty chemicals company Omkar Chemicals in August 2024. 

Meanwhile, there are MNCs that have exited India either owing to strategic reasons or simply for failing to get it right. The US-based Tyson Foods divested its share in Godrej Tyson Foods to Godrej Agrovet. Similarly, Novartis AG is considering selling its majority stake in the Indian arm amid a strategic review, closely following AstraZeneca’s exit owing to a global restructuring. Companies such as Pfizer, Sanofi, and GSK, too, have scaled down or exited, either owing to internal challenges or strategic realignments. In contrast, Holcim sold its stakes in ACC and Ambuja Cement to the Adani Group for $6.4 billion, citing environmental considerations despite India’s strong growth potential. 

While some MNCs have sought salvation through complete exits, others have found their redemption by cashing out at an opportune moment. 

For instance, the buoyant public markets in recent years have seen a string of companies such as Hyundai and Carraro listing their ventures, whereas there are the likes of Ameri-can home appliances giant, Whirlpool Corporation, which sold 24% of its stake in the Indian entity, aimed at reducing the parent’s debt. 

While the India growth story script has ended up in varying climaxes for MNCs, Sinha from BCG has a four-point framework for corporations to succeed: India needs to give a return on CEO time and so the goal should be ambitious as ambition makes you relevant for employees, partners, suppliers and the government, CEO involvement also allows for India specific metrics; engaging constructively rather than critically with the government is important; and adapting strategies to fit the unique Indian market is vital. More importantly realise that the Indian customer will not change for you. 

In short, if the only way to predict the future is to create it, MNCs need to realise that India isn’t a market you conquer; it’s one you groove with!