The Elefants –

a Selection of some very special Top Indian Companies

and their Backgrounds

by Gisela Seggebruch

TATA Group www.tata.com

….the company that presented the Tata Nano - the cheapest car in the
world - for 4 people and a prize of about 1700 €!

The foundation of what would grow to become the Tata Group was laid in
1868 by Jamsetji Nusserwanji Tata. The present Chairman of Tata is
Ratan Naval Tata. He is very wellknown and respected in India for his
great social engagement, transferring most of his profit to philantropic
projects - following an old tradition of the Tata family.
His credo: India must think small to stay big.

Business data
Annual revenue of 62,5 billion US $ in the Tata Group
96 companies with 350.000 employees all over the world
Presence in every major international market

Business fields/products
Consumer Products and services:
automobiles beverages charter flights food financial services
hotels jewellery telecommunications cooling and solar appliance

Business products and services:

Advanced composites chemicals automotive industry energy
agricultural products engineering steel trading
INFOSYS Technologies Ltd www.infosys.com

….this name seems to be rather well known in the western IT-World!

Infosys is a pioneer in strategic offshore outsourcing of software

services. It was started in 1981 by 7 people. Now the board consists of
16 senior officers, including all active founders along with external
members. The average age of all the employees is lower than 30 years.
More than 80% of them have an university degree.

Business data
Annual revenue of 4 billion US $
103.000 employees all over the world
Over 50 offices and development centers in India, China, Australia, the
Czech Republic, Poland, the UK, Canada and Japan.

Business fields/products
Infosys defines, designs and delivers technology-enabled business
solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in a “Flat World”.

Infosys' service offerings span business and technology consulting,

application services, systems integration, product engineering, custom
software development, maintenance, re-engineering, independent testing
and validation services, IT infrastructure services and business process
outsourcing.
RELIANCE Industries Ltd. www.ril.com

….have you ever heard of the traditional German brand TREVIRA? It

belongs to Reliance!

Reliance is India's largest private sector enterprise. It was founded by

Dhirubhai Ambani, who is credited to have brought about the equity cult
in India in the late seventies. His credo was: "Think big. Think differently.
Think fast. Think ahead. Aim for the best". Now Reliance is a Fortune
Global 500 company. The present Chairman & Managing Director is Shri
Mukesh D. Ambani, the elder son of the founder.

Starting with textiles in the late seventies, Reliance pursued a strategy of

backward vertical integration to be fully integrated along the materials
and energy value chain.

Business data
Annual revenue 36 billion US $
Employees (no exact present data)
94 major subsidiaries and production sides all over the world
Export to 108 countries

Business fields/products
The Group's activities span exploration and production of oil and gas,
petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals (polyester, fibre
intermediates, plastics, chemicals), textiles, retail and spacial economic
zones. Reliance is the world's largest producer of Polyester fibre and
yarn.
ArcelorMittal N.V. www.arcelormittal.com

….the company’s name makes clear, what happened some years ago:
the hostile take over of the European steel giant ARCELOR in 2006/07 by
Mittal – now the world’s largest producer of steel!

The company was founded by Lakshmi Mittal; its roots lie in a small steel
company his father had bought in 1991. It is said that Lakshmi Mittal is
the forth richest person in the world, who now has lost 30 billion €
because of the international financial crisis. ArcelorMittal is still a “family
business”: his son and his daughter are both managers in exposed
positions in the headquarter of the company.

Business data
Annual Revenue 106 billion US $
320.000 employees worldwide
Presence in more than 60 countries all over the world
Production sides in more than 18 countries
Headquarter in Luxembourg

Business fields/products
The full range of steel products and services: flat steel products, long
steel products, stainless steel, carbon steels, alloys, wire solutions,
plates.
WIPRO Technologies Ltd. www.wipro.com

….what has vegetable oil to do with software development?

Wipro (Western India Vegetable Products Ltd) started as a vegetable oil

company in 1947 from an old mill founded by Azim Premji's father. When
his father died in 1966, Azim Premji took on the leadership of the
company at the age 21. He transformed it into a consumer goods
company. In 1977, when IBM was asked to leave India, Wipro entered
the information technology sector, first with the development of
hardware, and than in 1980 Wipro moved into software development.
Today Wipro is the largest independent R&D Services provider in the
world and the only Indian company to be ranked among the top 10 global
outsourcing providers in IAOP's 2006. And Wipro is the worldʼs first IT-
services company to use Six Sigma.
Azim Premji still is the Chairman and Managing Director of Wipro. He is
known for his great social engagement – his foundation for the elemen-
tary education in rural areas all over India.
Azim Premji says: Rich people should have a much higher understanding
of the responsibility that comes along with their fortune.

Business data
Annual revenue more than 4 billion US $
over half billion revenue from R&D
95.000 employees all over the world
54 development centers across the globe

Business fields/products
IT services product engineering solutions consulting services
technology infrastructure services business process outsourcing
Aditya Birla Group www.adityabirla.com

.....if you buy some fancy skirt at esprit, you may be in touch with Birla!

The roots of the Aditya Birla Group date back to the 19th century in
Pilani, where Seth Shiv Narayan Birla started trading in cotton. In the
early part of the 20th century Ghanshyamdas Birla set up industries in
critical sectors such as textiles and fibre, aluminium, cement and
chemicals. And Aditya Birla was the first to put Indian business on the
world map. Now the Birla Group trades under the title Indiaʼs First Global
Corporation. In 2005 esprit and Aditya Birla Nuvo became partnership.
The Birla family traditionally is engaged in social projects and has
founded the Aditya Birla Centre for Community Initiatives and Rural
Development, 
running 41 schools and 18 hospitals. In 2007 Aditya Birla
became "The Best Employer in India and among the top 20 in Asia" by
Wall Street Journal. The present chairman is Kumar M. Birla.

Business data
Annual revenue 28 billion US $
100.000 employees worldwide
Operations in 25 countries (India, UK, Germany, Hungary, Brazil, Italy,
France, Luxembourg, Switzerland, Australia, USA, Canada, Egypt,
China, Thailand, Laos, Indonesia, Philippines, Dubai, Singapore,
Myanmar, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Malaysia, Korea)

Business fields/products
Primary and rolled aluminium products, copper products, cement, carbon
for tyres, textiles , fertilisers, chemicals, insulators, mining, retail, telecom