THEY CAME, THEY SAW, THEY CONQUERED

The maiden Fortune India MNC 500 showcases the heft and depth of the largest multinationals in the country, with a cumulative total income of ₹36.77 lakh crore ($438 billion) and ₹2.25 lakh crore ($27 billion) in profits.

- V. KESHAVDEV

IT’S A BUSTLING afternoon in Nariman Point, where history and modernity collide in the city’s oldest central business district, located less than a mile from the iconic Gateway of India— initially conceived as a cardboard structure to commemorate the 1911 arrival of King-Emperor George V and Queen-Empress Mary. Shared cabs zigzag through the labyrinth of narrow streets, competing with lumbering BEST buses ferrying officegoers clutching files and sling-bags. The chaotic serenity is punctuated by the occasional gleam of a Merc or Beamer, gliding past with an air of effortless affluence. On the sidewalks, amid a tantalising aroma of Indian spices, vendors showcase their culinary craft with the rhythmic clatter of spatulas on shiny but tarred woks—serving up a sensory symphony of hustle, flavour, and ambition, intertwined with the relentless tempo of India’s storied financial capital.

Rising above the cacophony, on the 14th floor of Boston Consulting Group’s India headquarters, I sit across from Janmejaya Sinha, anticipating a structured conversation on what it takes to make it big in India. Instead, the 65-year-old chairman—who joined BCG India as employee No. 16 in 1998 and now leads a 3,500-member strong consulting business—narrates an anecdote that cuts to the core of why multinationals thrive or perish in India. “In 2004,” he recounts, “a client came to us, determined to sell $10,000 televisions in India. At the time, most Indians didn’t even earn that much in a year. But he was convinced: ‘India has a billion people. Surely, we can sell at least a thousand TVs.’”

Sinha pauses, a flicker of bemusement crossing his face. “He told me, ‘We sell these TVs in Denmark all the time.’ I wanted to ask, ‘Are you out of your mind?’ but of course, I held my tongue as he was paying the bill!”