Innholdsfortegnelse for 14 September 2025 i Business Today

In an age of pivots, where business models are hit overnight by external factors like Trump’s tariffs or domestic policies like the ban on real-money gaming, Business Today’s annual ranking of India’s top-performing companies has also pivoted after 33 long years. We have moved from ranking by market capitalisation to a single primary metric that investors prize—that of profitability. Why this switch? A list based purely on market cap does not fully capture real profitability and cash flows, the size of free float and control, the burden of debt versus cash, or the distortions that accompany hype cycles. Investors don’t own “size”, they own a claim on future profits. While earnings can be cyclical or subject to accounting practices, profitability remains the clearest, most comparable signal of a sustainable business…

IN 1993, WHEN India began to shrug off the shackles of the Licence Raj, a fledgling manufacturing unit in Noida started assembling televisions. It would go on to script one of the most remarkable growth stories in India’s electronics industry. Three decades later, Dixon Technologies is no longer just a television assembler. It has become the country’s leading electronics manufacturing services (EMS) player, with a sprawling presence across smartphones, appliances, telecom equipment, and now even electronic components. Its success is reflected in its financial performance. In FY25, the company’s gross sales saw a YoY leap of 119.5% from ₹17,706 crore to ₹38,860 crore. Profit after tax saw shot up exponentially by 224% to ₹1,215 crore. So, when Dixon made it to the BT500 list of most profitable companies, it wasn’t…

“WE HAVE SET a target that operating profit should be the top agenda. Whatever we do should, in some way, contribute to the operating profit.” Ashok Chandra, Managing Director and CEO, has clearly set the agenda at Punjab National Bank (PNB). THE PERFORMANCE PNB—the country’s second-largest state-owned lender—has been building up on its profitability over the years. In FY25, standalone operating profit rose 7.6% to ₹26,831 crore, from ₹24,931 in FY24. Standalone net profit more than doubled to ₹16,630 crore in FY25, from ₹8,245 crore in FY24, and consolidated profit after tax (PAT) saw a lofty rise of 109% from ₹8,329 crore to ₹17,440 crore. No wonder the bank is on the list of firms that have seen the highest growth in PAT among companies with one-year average m-cap of…

WHEN VEDANTA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Arun Misra addressed shareholders during the company’s March quarter earnings call last summer, his message was bold and optimistic. He said financial year 2024-25 (FY25) had the potential to be the “best-ever” year for Vedanta, promising record-breaking performance across volumes, revenue, costs, and profits. Fast forward 12 months, and the Anil Agarwal-led mining giant delivered on that ambitious forecast. Vedanta and its subsidiary Hindustan Zinc ranked third among the fastest-growing major groups in the BT500 list of India’s Most Profitable Companies, doubling profits and capping a standout year for the metals and mining conglomerate. Vedanta posted its highest-ever aluminium and zinc volumes in FY25. Consolidated net profit jumped 172% year-on-year (YoY) to ₹20,535 crore, while revenue climbed 6.4% to an all-time high of ₹1.52 lakh crore.…

FOR SUZLON ENERGY, FY25 marked a comeback from nowhere, given that the Pune-headquartered company was deep in the red even as recently as three years ago. However, in FY25 it saw a 214% jump in its profit after tax and revenues rose 66%. It wasn’t rocket science. J.P. Chalasani, CEO of Suzlon Group, points out that the company’s mantra was a strong focus on profitable and sustained growth. “Our disciplined turnaround strategy was built on three pillars—financial prudence, operational excellence and future-ready growth,” he says. How did Suzlon crack the code? Suzlon’s turnaround was the product of strategies laid out over the years. Patience and perseverance helped the firm record its highest profit before tax in a decade, with an order book of 5.6 GW and a net cash position…

IN 1897, A young lawyer-turned-entrepreneur named Ardeshir Godrej abandoned his legal career after a series of failed ventures and took a bold gamble on something simple yet symbolic—locks. Few would have guessed that this modest foray into manufacturing would be the key to building one of India’s most enduring and diversified business empires. More than a century later, the Godrej Industries Group stands as a symbol of resilience and reinvention, with businesses spanning consumer products, agribusiness, real estate, and chemicals. From safe-guarding homes with locks to safeguarding livelihoods with sustainable farming, housing millions in its real estate ventures, and building a household name, the Godrej brand has become deeply entwined with India’s growth story. And this enduring relevance has given Godrej Industries Group a place in Business Today’s annual BT500 edition.…

FY25 WAS A banner year for India’s automobile industry. Despite the sector’s profit after tax (PAT) falling 2.5% to ₹1.12 lakh crore, vehicle sales rose 7.33% to 25.6 million units, spearheaded by record demand for three-wheelers and passenger cars. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd’s net rose 7.5% to ₹14,500 crore, driven by stable domestic demand, while Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd’s PAT rose 14.7% to ₹14,073 crore, owing to blockbuster SUV sales. Tata Motors Ltd’s profit, however, skidded 28% to ₹23,278 crore, from ₹32,453 crore in FY24, hurt by rising input costs and pressures on its UK unit, Jaguar Land Rover Ltd. Maruti Suzuki’s gross sales rose 7.7% to ₹1.55 lakh crore and Mahindra & Mahindra breached ₹1.65 lakh crore, up 14.5%, reflecting a consumer shift towards sports utility vehicles (SUVs). In…

IF CHINESE PRIVATE sector insurance giant Ping An Insurance were a bank, its $158 billion revenue would place it alongside UK banking giant HSBC and Spain’s Santander, and ahead of Royal Bank of Canada. Though it matches investment banking giant Goldman Sachs with assets of $1.77 trillion, its $17.6 billion profit is well below HSBC’s $22.97 billion and other banks with similar scale. This explains the nature of the insurance business—lower leverage, higher claims, limited product suite, and modest investment yields, all of which keep margins lower than in banking. In India, things are no different. Despite this, insurance was the seventh-most profitable sector in FY25, with profits of listed players rising 16% to ₹65,255 crore. The biggest, LIC, outshined at the 6th spot in the BT500 list, though its…

To give a balanced picture of how companies in the BT500 list are performing, we created a scorecard. Instead of looking at just one measure, we gave equal weight to three factors—revenue growth, market capitalisation, and profitability. Revenue growth shows how fast a company is expanding its business and operations. Market capitalisation reflects the level of trust investors have placed in the company, while also giving a sense of its overall size and market value. Profitability highlights how efficiently a company runs its operations and how sustainable its performance is over time. By bringing these three factors together, the scorecard provides a more balanced and fair assessment of corporate performance. Here are the company rankings based on this approach: NOTE *ONE-YEAR AVERAGE MARKET CAPITALISATION TILL JUNE 30 SOURCE ACE…

POLISHED, POCKET-SIZED, AND PLAYING IT SAFE The Galaxy Z Flip 7 is one of those phones that instantly get noticed. Unfold it in a café or flip it open during a call, and heads turn. It’s stylish, sleek, and futuristic, but more importantly, it’s refined. Samsung’s seventh-gen flip phone doesn’t revolutionise the format, but it doesn’t need to. This is a phone that’s all about making a good thing even better. At first glance, it doesn’t seem that different from last year’s model, but small upgrades make a big impact. It’s a little thinner when folded, a little taller when open. And the new 4.1-inch outer display is the real star. It wraps around the camera module beautifully. Available on https://rog.asus.com/in/laptops/rog-flow/rog-flow-z13-2025/ SPECIFICATIONS MAIN DISPLAY: 6.9-INCH DYNAMIC AMOLED 2X, FHD+ (≈2520 ×…

FOR AWL AGRI BUSINESS, FY25 was marked by a big change in ownership. In July, Wilmar International raised its stake in the firm, formerly Adani Wilmar, to 64% after a ₹7,150 crore deal, becoming the majority shareholder, while the Adani family’s stake fell to 11%. The firm reported a sharp turnaround with a whopping 582% jump in profit after tax (PAT), the highest increase in the BT500 India’s Most Profitable Companies list for FY25, while net sales rose 24% to ₹63,672 crore. Angshu Mallick, Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of AWL Agri Business, attributes this resilience to a unique blend of global expertise and local execution. He insists that operations remain unchanged as AWL continues to use Adani’s ports and logistics infrastructure while strengthening its own supply chain. “Wilmar…

COMMODITY CYCLES WIELD enormous influence on natural resources companies, with elevated prices boosting toplines and profits. Public sector enterprise National Aluminium Company Ltd (NALCO) was a standout gainer from the sharply higher aluminium prices in 2024-25 (FY25). Together with measures to make the production cycle more efficient and cost reduction, the government-owned enterprise reported vastly improved financial performance. Its profit after tax (PAT) jumped an unprecedented 167.8% to ₹5,325 crore for the year ended March 31, 2025, even though its revenue from operations at ₹16,788 crore grew at relatively moderate rate of 27.7%. This sharp rise in PAT catapulted the fully integrated aluminium manufacturer into a league of listed companies reporting the quickest growth in profits that year. It is also among the top 100 most profitable companies in the…

FROM ITS MODEST beginnings in Ludhiana as a bicycle parts maker to commanding revenues of over ₹1.5 lakh crore, Bharti Enterprises has redefined scale and ambition among Indian businesses. Bharti Airtel, its crown jewel, today ranks among the world’s top telecom operators with more than 500 million subscribers across 17 countries. Aided by Airtel, in FY25, the group saw a 223% year-on-year (YoY) surge in profit after tax (PAT) to ₹48,907 crore, as per data from ACE Equity. This has catapulted the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led enterprise to second rank among groups with the fastest growth in PAT in the BT500 list. The firm’s revenue market share touched a record high of nearly 40% in FY25, surging by 1.78 percentage points YoY. The winning formula was an improved portfolio mix, continued…

IN INVESTING, THE relationship between company performance and shareholder returns is rarely straightforward. Earnings growth, while critical, does not always translate into stock market gains. To understand the earnings potential, it helps to look at the journey corporate India has taken over the past decade. Today, companies are better capitalised, and governance standards stronger. Supporting the renewed strength are powerful tailwinds. Policy continuity, rapid digital adoption, and rising consumer aspirations are converging to create a durable growth runway. Structural reforms such as GST are simplifying compliance. Infrastructure upgrades and shifts in global supply chains are adding further momentum. Together, these shifts present opportunities and pose questions. The opportunities lie in the sectors poised to drive India’s next earnings cycle. When and at what price investors choose to participate will determine…

IT ALL BEGAN, at least in the cultural imagination, with a Christmas romcom. In The Holiday, Cameron Diaz leaves her gleaming Los Angeles mansion, trading places with Kate Winslet’s picture-book Surrey cottage. Both women step into unfamiliar homes, and unfamiliar lives. What then seemed an irresistible Hollywood whim has since become real. Today, Indian travellers can also swap their homes. With the arrival of HomeExchange, the world’s largest home-swapping platform, the fantasy of trading one’s home for another’s—be it a Parisian loft, a Swiss chalet, or a beachfront villa in Thailand—is now a practical and possible way to travel. THE CONCEPT For an annual fee of ₹7,500, members can access a global portfolio of over 360,000 homes in 155 countries. The exchange involves no financial transaction between the guest and…

What was the problem you were grappling with? When we started out, the big question was, why aren’t more Indians investing? Despite all the buzz around mutual funds, only about 3% Indians invest in them. We felt there was a real opportunity to make investing simpler, more accessible, something that could make it a ritual. Whom did you approach for advice and why? We leaned on the strengths of our parent companies, Zerodha Broking and smallcase (a fintech company). Together, they bring rich expertise in capital markets, having built digital infrastructure and retail platforms at scale with a strong grasp of investor behaviour. What was the advice you received? Keep it simple. Make it transparent and affordable. And above all, make it accessible. The takeaway was clear—to enable more people…