SIZZLING SHOW BY INDIA INC.'S EMERGING FIRMS

Over 10 years, cumulative topline of The Next 500 club nearly doubles to ₹10.62 lakh crore even as profit quadruples to ₹60,000 crore.

- V. Keshavdev

IF GROWTH is a constant, then the decade-long saga of The Next 500 would be the adrenaline-pumping chronicle of India Inc.'s unstoppable surge and an ode to the indefatigable spirit of India's growth story which has hit a crescendo in 2024.

The Next 500, the definitive list of those poised to blitz into the hallowed ranks of the marquee Fortune 500 India, has throttled past a new milestone, with this year's collective total income nearly doubling (1.9x jump) from the ₹5.63 lakh crore in its inaugural year, 2015, to ₹10.62 lakh crore, this year. But the real deal is the quadrupling of cumulative profit to a massive ₹60,653 crore (See: It's a perfect 10).

Pertinently, the growth of India Inc.'s emerging giants has largely mirrored the near doubling (1.9x) of India's GDP from $1.7 trillion in FY14 to $3.3 trillion by FY23. Over the same period, the growth shown by the larger companies in the Fortune 500 India universe is similar with cumulative revenue surging 2.1x from ₹69.36 lakh crore to ₹145 lakh crore and cumulative profit rising more than doubling (2.52x) from ₹4.33 lakh crore to ₹10.94 lakh crore.

There are 63 debutants in the list this year, commanding a cumulative total income of ₹1.25 lakh crore and profit of ₹8,639 crore. The performance has also to be measured against a turbulent landscape punctuated by the pandemic, geopolitical skirmishes, and rising interest rates. Not to mention, India-specific developments of demonetisation and the introduction of GST. Not surprising that the average GDP growth over the past decade (FY15-FY24) was lower at 5.9% over an average 6.8% seen over the decade of FY05-FY14.