NITI Aayog working on ways to help Indian firms become global giants, says vice chairman Rajiv Kumar

New Delhi: The NITI Aayog is exploring ways to encourage more domestic companies to be among the top multinational corporations in the world, the think-tank’s Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar has said. The government is working to further improve the ease of doing business in the country. Kumar said the Aayog is trying to figure out impediments for an Indian company in achieving global size. The government think-tank has already held preliminary meetings with the industry bodies and top industrialists to identify the roadblocks that are hindering growth of Indian companies. “We have noticed that China and some other emerging economies like Turkey, Argentina and Brazil, all of them have been able to establish companies, which are MNCs in their own right and have a significant share of the sectors in which they operate. [caption id=“attachment_4447733” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] File image of Rajiv Kumar, Vice-Chairman of NITI Aayog. PIB image[/caption] “You can see this is true of the companies like Alibaba, Temasek or Baidu, being able to compete with largest companies in the world,” he said. In the latest Fortune 500 list of the world’s biggest corporations in terms of revenue released this year, only seven Indian companies made it to the ranking. Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) was ranked 137th, Mukesh Ambani-led RIL ranked 148th, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) ranked 197th and State Bank of India (SBI) was given 216th rank. US-based retail giant Walmart topped the global rankings, followed by State Grid Corporation of China, and China National Petroleum. “The Indian companies should also figure prominently in the list of top global MNCs,” he said, adding this is not a tall order given the fact that India, in quick time, has been able to significantly improve its ranking in the World Bank’s ease of doing business ranking. The US continues to have the largest presence on the elite list with 132 firms, followed by China at 109. Kumar also pointed out that the future of any economy is often dependent on the strength and nature of their large corporations. He emphasised that India’s large and growing economy should give a strong base for our companies to improve scale and become global. “So, given that positive factor, also that some of our entrepreneurs are also very capable in running companies abroad. “We need to identify factors which are preventing them from becoming global players, and also to identify some of the drivers which have enabled companies in other countries to be able to do so,” Kumar observed. RIL was the most profitable Indian firm on the list. In the most profitable list, it secured the 99th position. The list was topped by Apple.