Tata Consultancy Only Indian Company Among Top Ten Employers in India
No Adani or Ambani company among top 25 employers in India according to LinkedIn
April 20, 2024
Since the 1980s, the Ambani and Adani groups have grown rapidly, dominating major businesses in India. Ambani’s Reliance Industries operates in a wide range of businesses including oil and gas, petrochemicals, and cellular and digital services. Reliance had revenues of $109 billion in 2023.
In 2023, the Adani Group had revenues of $32 billion. It owns power plants, transmission lines and coal mines; runs the Mumbai airport and other airports and Mundra, India’s largest port, and other ports; consumer goods including edible oils and cement; and real estate businesses in India and abroad.
While Reliance has more than 389,000 employees, the Adani group has more than 43,000 employees.
Companies succeed and grow big mainly due to attracting the best managerial, technical, and other talent, according to business school professors and courses taught at the Indian Institutes of Management as well as Harvard. So, this raises the expectation that the Ambani and Adani companies are among the best places to work in India.
Yet no Adani or Ambani company is among LinkedIn’s eighth annual list of 25 best companies in India for employees’ career development, which was published this week.
“These are the companies (in India) leading the way in attracting professionals as well as retaining them in our ever-changing world of work,” LinkedIn stated in a post about the list.
In fact, only one Indian owned company, Tata Consultancy Services, is among the top ten; it is ranked number one. In all there are only three Indian owned companies on the top 25 list, with the other two being HCL Tech, at number 12, and ICICI Bank,19.
All but one of the remaining 22 companies on the LinkedIn list - much sought after places to work by professionals in India - are Indian subsidiaries of western companies. They include financial companies Morgan Stanley, J.P. Morgan Chase, Mastercard, Wells Fargo and Goldman Sachs, all based in the U.S.; and Australia’s Macquarie Group. Also, accounting and information technology services companies Accenture and Deloitte, based in the U.S., and EY based in the U.K.
DP World, a port operator, transportation, and logistics company based in Dubai, is the only non-Western company on the LinkedIn list. It operates the port of Chennai in India.
In preparing the list, LinkedIn analyzed its data of companies operating in India, with more than 5,000 employees globally. The methodology looked at various aspects of career progression, including how employees are getting promoted, adding new skills and whether employers are investing in the employee experience — through Artificial Intelligence upskilling initiatives, flexible work offerings and other initiatives.
Reliance is run by Mukesh Ambani, 67-years-old, who is based in Mumbai. Back in 2014, he was the richest Indian, with a net worth of $19 billion. Currently, with an estimated net worth of $116 billion, Ambani is the wealthiest person in India and 11th among billionaires around the world, according to Forbes.
While setting up Jio, Reliance’s cellular and digital services, Ambani reportedly got the business licenses, overcame massive regulatory hurdles very quickly and could launch a price war against established rivals due to his political ties to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ruling Bharatiya Janata party. In 2016, while launching the service, Ambani said that “Jio is dedicated to realising the Prime Minister’s inspiring vision of ‘Digital India’ for (all) Indians.” In the past, rival cellphone service providers also used political connections to their business advantage.
The Adani Group was founded and is run by Gautam Adani, 61-years-old, who is based in Ahmedabad, India. In 2014, Adani’s net worth was $2.8 billion, according to Forbes. He is from Gujarat. That year Narendra Modi, the former Chief Minister of Gujarat, took over as India’s Prime Minister. Adani “has profited since fellow Gujarati Narendra Modi, India’s most influential prime minister in decades, took office in 2014,” according to AP News.
Sometimes the cooperation between the Modi government and Adani “has been less about building and more about control,” according to The New York Times. “In 2018, Adani became the operator of six profit-earning airports after the government changed rules restricting ownership to companies with aviation experience.”
Since 2014, Adani’s net worth has risen nearly 30-fold; it is currently $82 billion, according to Forbes. He is the second wealthiest person in India and 17th among billionaires around the world.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), which topped the LinkedIn list, was founded over a century ago. It is an IT services, consulting, and business solutions company.
Like other Tata companies, TCS is controlled by Tata Sons, the holding company of the Tata Group of companies. Two thirds of the equity of Tata Sons is held by the Tata Trusts. The trusts, which are funded by profits from the Tata companies, support philanthropic efforts in education, health, livelihood generation and art and culture, mostly in India.
Founded by Jamsetji Tata in 1868, the Tata group comprises of 30 companies including TCS, Tata Motors, Tata Steel and Tata Consumer Products. In fiscal year ended March 2023, the revenue of the Tata companies, taken together, was $150 billion. These companies collectively employ over 1 million people.
Jamsetji Tata set up many of the Tata Trusts in the 1900s. In 2021, he was named the Edelgive Hurun Philanthropist of the past century: Tata trusts donated $102 billion, followed by $75 billion given by the Bill Gates and Melinda French Gates foundation.
“In a free enterprise,” Jamsetji Tata noted, “the community is not just another stakeholder in business, but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.”