Tatas, Infosys among world's 15 most reputed firms

India's Tata Group has been ranked the world's sixth most reputed company and Infosys Technologies 14th in the annual 'Global 200: The World's Best Corporate Reputations' list compiled by the Reputation Institute here.

The list that includes 10 other Indian companies is topped by Japanese automaker Toyota, followed by Google and Ikea, Sweden's home products' chain.

"India's Tata Group and Infosys Technologies saw their reputations increase by over 8 points in 2008, and catapulted over 100 spots in the ranking to join the top tier of global companies in 2008 in recognition of their growing role among the world's business elite," the Reputation Institute said in its survey report released Thursday.

Other Indian firms in the top 200 list include Maruti Udyog (ranked 77th), State Bank of India (107), Hindustan Lever (131), Hero Honda Motors (147), Life Insurance Corporation of India (161), Bajaj Auto (169), ONGC (186), Mahindra and Mahindra (191), and Indian Oil Corporation (199).

Some large Indian firms which were among 600 shortlisted companies but could not make it to the final 200 included Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, the country's biggest by revenue among private sector firms and overall largest in terms of market value.

India's biggest private sector lender ICICI Bank, Airtel, BSNL, Wipro, ITC and Air India also could not make the cut.

According to the Reputation Institute, the Tata Group and Air India have the strongest and weakest corporate reputations, respectively, among Indian companies.

The Tatas are ranked higher than companies like Walt Disney, Marks and Spencers, Xerox, Colgate-Palmolive, Sony, Honda and General Electric (GE), all of which are in the top 50.

Reputation Institute said that all the 200 companies earned scores higher than the global mean of 64.2 points, but despite earnings better-than-global average, the companies ranked 51-200 have "significantly weaker reputations than the top tier companies."

Each company's overall Global Pulse score is based on what the institute terms the seven dimensions of reputation: products and services, innovation, workplace, citizenship, governance, leadership and performance. The most influential dimensions are products and services, and citizenship.

Reputation Institute, a private, New York City-based research and consulting firm, launched its list of world's most reputed companies in 2006.
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