When The Going Gets Good

Fortune India's The Next 500 companies create new records with cumulative topline and profits hitting decadal highs.

- V. Keshavdev

NAPOLEON BONAPARTE once said, “Strategy is the art of making use of time and space. I am less concerned about the latter than the former. Space we can recover, lost time never.” It is this very philosophy of the famous French emperor that India Inc. has imbibed in recent years. In the face of the worst adversity that shook the world, Covid-19, companies proved their mettle by not only overcoming the adversity but managing impressive growth as well. While Fortune 500 India ranking chronicled how the mightiest of India Inc. fared, it should not come as a surprise that the vast universe of small and mid-sized companies had a field day as well.

Savour this.

This year’s Fortune India The Next 500 club has seen a robust 40.94% year-on-year growth in total income to ₹7.77 lakh crore in FY22, and an even-more impressive performance on the profitability front with cumulative profit jumping 255.89% to ₹53,035 crore (See: Cometh the hour, cometh the league). This is by far the best-ever performance shown by the Next 500 constituents and a remarkable turnaround from a massive loss of ₹46,607 crore seen in Covid-hit 2021. Yet, it’s the resilience of India Inc. that stood out in the dark hour. While it’s true that 41 companies are still in the red with a cumulative loss of ₹13,950 crore, what’s pertinent to note is that a record 43 companies swung back into the black with a cumulative profit of ₹6,309 crore.

The optimism, unsurprisingly, is hard to miss.