Tata Group, Infosys Technologies rank among most reputed cos. in the world: Report

The Tata Group and Infosys Technologies spearhead India's charge, ranking 6th and 14th in the list, that also includes other Indian companies like Maruti Suzuki (77th), State Bank of India (107th), Hindustan Lever (131st), Hero Honda Motors (147th), Life Insurance Corporation of India (161st), Bajaj Auto (169th), ONGC (186th), Mahindra & Mahindra (191st) and Indian Oil Corporation (199th).

"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 Global Pulse 2008 report released by Reputation Institute said.

"The strong scores of these top companies demonstrates the strong relative respect in which they are held by the general public" in India, the report said. The two companies secured "excellent" Global Pulse scores of 82.84 and 81.18 respectively.

Interestingly, some of the Indian companies which did not make the cut are petrochemical refiner Reliance Industries (RIL) (India's biggest firm in terms of market capitalization); ICICI Bank (India's largest private sector bank); Bharti Airtel (India's largest mobile operator), state-owned telecom operator BSNL, IT services provider Wipro, Aditya Birla Group's Grasim Industrues, FMCG major ITC and state-run 76-year old airline Air India.

In fact, Air India, with a "weak" Global Pulse score of 53.91, has the worst reputation among Indian companies, the report suggested.