The Indian entities include 12 PSUs, six private corporates and two jointsector companies, the magazine said in its latest issue adding that Japanmaintained its supremacy with its 6,996 corporates dominating the list.

Notwithstanding the recent oil crisis in India and abroad, four PSUs fromthe petroleum sector were among the top five entities from the country whileReliance Industries representing textiles and chemicals sector was rankedfourth among the Indian companies.

IOC retained the 44th ranking for the year 2000 while Bharat Petroleum,Hindustan Petroleum, Reliance and Oil and Natural Gas Corporation improvedtheir position. The ranking by the prestigious publication was done on thebasis of turnover, profits and assets.

In terms of number of countries, India ranked eighth after Japan, Australia,South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong while Pakistan with justone company ended at the bottom.

An analysis of the data by Asia Week reveals that only eight companies (fivein petroleum, two in automobile sector and one in textiles and chemicals)improved their rankings whereas telecom, steel, engineering and powerentities slipped substantially.

Maruti Udyog, which is facing industrial unrest, improved its ranking byfour points at 717 while Tata Engineering zipped 68 places to finish at 570.Reliance, with profits of $558.1 million, overtook ONGC and Coal India (CIL)to a ranking of 239 this year against 281 in 1999.

(PTI)