Editor's Letter: The Growth Mantra

Until man duplicates a blade of grass, nature can laugh at his so called scientific knowledge. – Thomas Edison

Sustaining a steady growth momentum for listed companies is in itself a creditable performance. We at BW Businessworld are happy to present our annual special issue capturing the Fastest Growing Companies, based on an in-depth study and after a deep-dive into the financials of listed companies followed by intelligent number crunching. The research was carried out by our knowledge partner, TechSci Research. The period under review are the five financial years between 2017-18 and   2021-22. The list is based on a study of revenue and profitability data for these last five financial years. 

Companies in sectors like steel, cement, energy, chemicals, packaging, telecommunication, biotech and healthcare have emerged as the fastest growing in each of the financial categories. In the ‘Super Heavyweight’ category, in which companies had net sales of Rs 50,000 crore and above, the companies on the top rung include JSW Steel, UltraTech Cement, Grasim Industries, Tata Steel and Bharti Airtel. In the ‘Heavyweight’ segment, where net sales are between Rs 10,000 crore and Rs 49,999 crore, Deepak Nitrite, AGC Networks, Godawari Power & Ispat and J.K. Lakshmi Cement were in the forefront. 

The 'Middleweight' category had companies with revenue between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 4,999 crore. It had Apollo Healthcare, Indus Towers, Gokul Agro Resources, Gujarat Gas and APL Apollo Tubes showing the fastest rate of growth. In the 'Welterweight’ category of companies with net sales between Rs 1,000 crore and Rs 4,999 crore, Kirloskar Ferrous, Laurus Labs, TinPlate Company, Narayana Health and Cosmo First bagged the top ranks. Several profiled companies clocked record growth numbers in FY2022 while maintaining a healthy growth rate in the previous two fiscal years despite the Covid-induced challenges. 

In another special feature, we bring to you reports on how the government, public and private enterprises are preparing to meet India’s Net Zero 2070 target to usher in a “green economy”. Experts say the Net Zero emissions goal could actually bring tangible benefits not just to the environment, but also to the Indian economy, by boosting the growth momentum by about 4.7 per cent by 2036, and 3.5 per cent by 2060. Both public and private enterprises are investing in technology to reduce their carbon footprint in manufacturing, logistics and other aspects of the supply chain. Read our expert opinion on how crucial the switch to electric vehicles (EV) is and the views of industry leaders on what the automotive industry is doing to adopt the EV [email protected] goal.

Of course, we also have our regular features and columns that you look forward to. I do hope you enjoy reading this issue as much as we did writing it. 

Happy Reading!