No Indian co in world’s 100 most accountable

Not a single entity from India has managed to make the cut on the Fortune list of world's 100 most accountable firms.

Indian billionaires may be standing head and shoulders with those in global rich lists, but when it comes to the world’s 100 most accountable firms in terms of their commitment to society and environment, not a single entity from the country has managed to make the cut.

However, there are two companies led by persons of Indian origin — steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal-run ArcelorMittal and Vikram Pandit-led Citigroup — that have been included in the annual global list published by US business magazine Fortune.

However, the list has been topped by British telecom major Vodafone, which is present in India through a joint venture with Ruias-led Essar group and had an Indian origin person, Arun Sarin, as its CEO till August this year.

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Vodafone, which has moved to the top from its fifth position last year, is followed by American diversified conglomerate General Electric, British financial services giant HSBC Holdings, French telecom firm France Telecom (4th) and UK banking major HBOS in the top five.

British Petroleum, which topped the list in 2007, has slipped to the ninth position in this year’s list. Others in the top 10 include Finnish phone maker Nokia (6th), Electricite de France (7th), Suez (8th) and Royal Dutch Shell (10th).

Fortune partnered with AccountAbility, Csrnetwork and Asset4 to rank the companies in the list “by the quality of their commitment to social and environmental goals”.

Pandit-led Citi has jumped 15 places to 17th rank in the accountability ranking, while ArcelorMittal is now placed at the 73rd position, making significant improvement from the last year’s 96th rank.

The 100 most accountable companies are selected from among

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those included in the Fortune Global 500 list, which ranks the companies on the basis of annual turnover.