India’s Fortune 500 dream: How companies can make the cut

PRIME MINISTER Narendra Modi lobbed a challenge towards India Inc. from the ramparts of the Red Fort this Independence Day. In his address, the PM asked why India should not have at least 50 companies in the Fortune Global 500 list in the next 10 years. “I want to awaken the prowess of the nation. I want to look much beyond. We have heard a lot about Fortune 500. Can we not have 50 Indian companies in the list of Fortune 500 companies in the next decade?” PM Modi said. “This should be our target.” From banking to pharmaceuticals, the PM listed India’s potential to have a major presence in the world’s largest companies by revenue. He also said that at least one Indian bank should be among the top five global banks in the next 10 years. “The Indian banking sector is prospering today,” he said, adding that India has done a lot of work in the field of pharmaceuticals. “It is the need of the hour that a couple of Indian companies should be among the top global pharma companies. Be it law firms, or ratings agencies, it is the need of the hour that the reins of global leadership must be in the hands of India,” the PM said. Not only did PM Modi urge the private sector to vie for space in the Fortune 500 list of top global companies, he also suggested areas in which greater efforts could lead to the desired results. His prescription includes manufacturing with creation of end-to-end value chains, indigenous brand building, and significantly pushing the envelope on technology. “Manufacturing is key to India’s economic agenda. India needs to move beyond assembly and build complete value chains within the country, from components to finished products. The aim should be to make India a competitive manufacturing base on cost, quality, and scale,” he said. The PM went on to say that India had the requisite talent and capabilities. “Why should our consulting firms and accounting firms not be among the top global companies? We should aim at having our technology companies in the top global order. We need to work on indigenous brands and create a global reckoning for them,” he said, promising that the government will continue on the “path of reforms”. “We need to put in systems in line with 2047 goals,” PM Modi said, stressing that there could be no compromise on quality. And rightly so. What is being talked about here is a global gathering accounting for colossal revenues, profits, and employment generation. How they stack up In 2026, companies on Fortune’s Global 500 generated combined revenue of $43.1 trillion and earned profit of $3.39 trillion. The total revenue of the companies on the list accounts for a third of the global GDP and they employ 70.2 million people. With revenues of $716.92 billion, Amazon ended Walmart’s 12-year winning streak to top the charts. Incidentally, two Chinese companies — State Grid Corporation of China ($555.37 billion) and China National Petroleum ($401.92 billion) are among the top 10 on the list. The list is dominated by the U.S. with 141 companies, followed by China with 116. They are followed on the list by Japan (40), Germany (28), France (24), and the U.K. (21). As for India, only 10 companies have made to the 2026 list. Reliance Industries ranks 85th with revenues of $119.65 billion. Life Insurance Corporation of India is at 92, while ICICI Bank is at 471. The combined revenue of these 10 Indian companies is $740.74 billion. Indian companies need to cover a lot of ground in the next decade to have a significant presence on the list. So, what will it take for both India Inc. and the government to attain the feat? The government has implemented multiple reforms — GST, IBC, income tax, and more recently, free trade agreements — and more initiatives, including deregulation and banking reforms are currently underway and in the pipeline. Two days after the PM’s address, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman mentioned that the government will kick-start banking reforms soon. “There could not have been a better time to discuss banking for Viksit Bharat. Especially with the grind the sector has gone through and come out of all the difficulties. Coming to the root of reforms, NPAs are at the lowest ever and, therefore, there cannot be a better position with which you can take on reforms,” Sitharaman told the chiefs of public sector banks at the PSB Confluence in New Delhi. According to data from the Reserve Bank of India, India has 12 PSBs and 21 private banks. The finance minister also announced that the government would soon constitute a high-level committee on banking for Viksit Bharat. Meanwhile, the Indian economy is on a sustained growth path despite global disruptions. GDP growth stood at 7.8% in Q1FY27. This is likely to offer a platform for companies to perform. “The Indian economy has shown resilience in the last 10-12 years. Despite global shocks since Covid, sustained GDP growth has been witnessed,” Chief Economic Advisor V. Anantha Nageswaran said in his address at Assocham’s India International FinTech Festival, 2026. “You can imagine that every year or two, there has been a major external shock. Covid, the Ukraine-Russia war, the energy shock, and 2025 onwards, it has been tariffs and then conflict. But post-Covid, there have been very few countries which have maintained a sustained growth rate of over 7% in real terms,” the CEA had said. More steps needed However, the target is massive. Companies on the Fortune 500 India list have a combined revenue of a little over $2 trillion, in comparison to the Global 500’s $43.1 trillion. India Inc. and the government will have to work in tandem to gain a significant presence on the list. Deloitte India economist Rumki Majumdar points out that with a current minimum revenue threshold of $33.2 billion for the Global 500, a company may need to earn at least $45 billion by 2036, factoring in a 3-4% annual growth to qualify for the list. “This is an aspirational target, and it is achievable if the right economic conditions begin falling into place today,” she tells Fortune India. “Companies will need to enhance global competitiveness and build scale in both the domestic and global markets. One of the ways could be that Indian companies leverage the recent FTAs to their advantage to create the right scaling opportunities and tap into global markets.” Second, says Majumdar, companies will not be able to achieve this scale alone. “They will have to forge strategic partnerships with global multinationals that can help strengthen their manufacturing capabilities, distribution networks, access to technology, and customer reach,” she explains. And third, Indian companies will need to move up the value chain with their focus on innovation and R&D. Experts also call for a governance and quality framework. “The PM’s target mandates a structural reform, and not merely a corporate scorecard. To achieve Fortune Global 500 status, Indian companies need to focus on a governance and quality framework that can withstand global scrutiny. ESG, transparency and accountability need to be adopted as operating disciplines, and not only as reporting add-ons,” says Kartik Jain, Partner, JSA Advocates & Solicitors. Measures from India Inc. will have to be complemented by policy support, experts suggest. “India’s next phase of growth will significantly depend on regulatory frameworks that are clear, stable, predictable and effectively implemented. Companies seeking to scale must also assess sectoral and geopolitical risks, at the outset. That is how Indian businesses can scale with confidence at home and abroad,” says Jain. Majumdar says that for India Inc. to scale globally and invest in innovation, the country will need a supportive policy environment that promotes exports, facilitates access to finance, and strengthens an innovative ecosystem. “These are the three things that the government will have to put in place to help companies to be competitive and scale higher in the value chain.” Jain says a holistic approach by the government is the need of the hour. “The kind of target Modi ji has given needs structural and fundamental changes. We need to focus on grassroots-level change beginning from education, and skilling the youth.” The PM has made the call for a lofty target. While reforms are an ongoing agenda of the government, the domestic corporate sector, too, is exhibiting resilience. Despite challenges because of global disruptions, India’s top companies have beaten Q1 earnings estimates. Earnings growth hit a 10-quarter high, beating Motilal Oswal Financial Services’ 10% estimate, the brokerage said. Aggregate profit after tax grew 18% year-on-year in the quarter. The right mix of policy consistency and the corporate sector’s thrust on investments, innovation, and aggressive leveraging of platforms like FTAs may yield the desired results. The journey is long, but the conditions are right.

India’s Fortune 500 dream: How companies can make the cut

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