Indian cos. biggest gainers among Asia's 200 best 'under a billion'

Washington (IANS)- With 39 Indian companies making it to the Forbes "Asia's Best Under a Billion" list, up from only 20 last year, India was the biggest gainer as the region grew at "blistering rates" after the global economic crisis.

"More Indian companies made it to the list this year as the country is less open than many other Asian economies and was therefore less affected by the global downturn," the influential US business magazine said announcing the list topped by China with 71 companies.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has said investment and savings rates in India's economy make economic growth of 10 percent a year an achievable target in the medium term," it said noting, "That would be gravy for the winners on our list, which averaged an 89 percent total return in the last year,"

China-Hong Kong companies predominate, with 71 on the list, though this is down from 78 last year despite the mainland's $590 billion stimulus package.

Indian companies making it to the list include Jindal Drilling & Industries, Emami, Allied Digital Services, Exide Industries, Jubilant Organosys, Spice Mobility, Zydus Wellness, Amara Raja Industries, Compact Disc India, Everonn Education and Micro Technologies.

Among other Indian firms on the list are Ashiana Housing, Banco Products (India), Bliss GVS Pharma, Deep Industries, Glodyne Technoserve, Kaveri Seed, KNR Constructions, ELGI Equipments and ICSA (India).

Forbes Best Under a Billion list is chosen from nearly 13,000 publicly-listed Asia-Pacific companies with actively traded shares and having sales in the range of $5 million-$1 million. The selection of the best 200 companies is based on earnings growth, sales growth, and shareholders' return on equity in the past 12 months and over three years.

According to Forbes, the latest list has 151 new entrants as compared to 136 last year. Information technology, health care and electronics companies accounted for nearly half of the 200 entities.