13 Indian firms in Forbes Asia's Fabulous 50 list

As many as 13 Indian companies, including Reliance Industries (RIL), Infosys Technologies and Tata Steel, have made it to the list of Forbes' 50 best listed companies in the Asia-Pacific region. "Our list is a mix of giant, established companies this year which includes Australian miner BHP Billiton, Hong Kong conglomerate Noble Group and Indian oil and gas heavyweight RIL — and smaller outfits such as Agile Property Holdings, Anhui Conch Cement and Digital China Holdings," Forbes Asia said in a statement. The Forbes list has four Indian entities — RIL, Bharti Airtel, Infosys Technologies and Tata Consultancy Services — among the top ten firms in terms of market value, while RIL and Tata Steel feature in the top ten league in terms of sales. The Indian league has four newcomers this year — Adani Enterprises, Axis Bank, Jindal Steel & Power and Tata Consultancy Services — and among the Indian firms returning to the list include Bharat Heavy Electricals, Larsen & Toubro and RIL. China has again outdone the rest of the Asia Pacific with the most number of firms (16) represented in the league, followed by India with 13 entities. "The mainland firms together with five from Taiwan and three from Hong Kong account for almost half of the entries, giving Greater China the biggest regional representation on the list," Forbes said. Taiwan moved up the ranking this year and is in the third place with five companies on the list, all of which are from the technology sector. Japan and Australia share the fourth place with four companies each on the list. The list included companies that have revenue and market capitalisation of at least $3 billion and a five year record of operating profitability and return on equity. The other criteria for being in the list include long term profitability, sales and earnings growth, stock price appreciation, projects earnings, quality of management and entrepreneurial skills