If one wants to take a health check on corporate India, and hence get a glimpse of how the broader economy is looking, there are few better places to do that than the Fortune India 500 (FI500) listing of India’s largest corporations. Over the years, this list has demonstrated the ups and downs of India Inc, the challenges faced by companies in the wake of policy changes, and the way forward for the economy.

The 2020 Fortune India 500 list of India’s largest companies, which we bring you in this edition is drawn from  FY20 numbers, does not tell us the story of how the Coronavirus pandemic impacted businesses But even without the pandemic there are enough pain points, evidence that FY20 was hardly a happy year for Corporate India.  The total profit of the 2020 Fortune India 500 companies declined nearly 22% from the year-ago period to around `3.6 lakh crore. The impact of Covid-19 will be evident in next year’s listing. There are 38 companies which reported a revenue of more than `50,000 crore each; these accounted for almost 60% of the total revenue of this year’s list

In the VUCA world, even the largest companies will need to be nimble and adapt to sudden changes. The good news, as some of the stories in the following pages will tell you, is that many companies have already recognised this new reality, and are in the process of reorienting their business models. The world has changed forever.