According to the International Monetary Fund (IMF), India is poised to remain a significant contributor to the global economy, accounting for approximately 15 per of global economic growth in CY 2023. Russia-Ukraine war and geo political tensions in some geographies continue to impact countries across the world due to increasing energy prices, inflation and supply chain disruption globally. Against this backdrop, India stands out with a strong resilient economy and large infrastructure investments. 

As per the Government's estimates gross domestic product (GDP) for the April-June 2023 quarter showed a strong growth of 7.8 percent - the highest in four quarters. While GDP growth was robust, India’s manufacturing sector story is puzzling the experts. The sector grew by 4.7 per cent in Q1 FY24 (compared to compared to 4.5 percent in January-March 2023) while several estimates had predicted it to grow in double-digits. Higher expectation from the manufacturing sector was based on the fact that companies in the sector reported robust earnings. 

Several experts had estimated the sector to grow at 17-18 per cent as per their calculations based on the earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) numbers of manufacturing companies. Disparity between experts’ calculations and the government’s estimate numbers is a bit perplexing. Some argue that the government's calculation is based on the IIP (Index of Industrial Production) data (which is largely reflective of the informal sector), while EBITDA is more reflective of the formal sector. 

The "Top 100 Engineering Companies in India" story, in this Edition of IPF, also corroborates the fact that the leading engineering firms registered strong growth despite challenging circumstances. The story presents the top performers in the engineering industry, which is of strategic importance to the country's economy being closely associated with the manufacturing and infrastructure sectors. This year 199 listed companies - from various segments like general & heavy engineering, electrical & electronics, auto components, castings & forging, machine tool, welding, hydraulics, etc - "qualified" for the "Top 100" ranking procedure. The cumulative sales and net profit of these qualified companies witnessed a jump of 27 per cent and 57 per cent respectively in FY23 compared with FY22.

With 29 per cent, companies in the engineering (general & heavy) sector dominated this year's "Top 100 Engineering Companies in India" list followed by auto ancillary firms with 27 per cent. Companies operating in electrical & electronics space accounted for 22 per cent in the "Top 100 Engineering Companies" list.

India’s auto components industry had a dream run in FY23 due to an increase in demand for automobiles by the growing middle class and exports. No wonder that auto ancillary firms dominated the "Very Large" category (with 52 per cent) of the "Top 100 Engineering Companies" ranking list. On the other hand, engineering companies led the other three categories of "Large", "Medium" and "Small" with contribution of 36 per cent, 32 per cent and 40 per cent, respectively. 

India has firmly held its position as the world's fastest growing economy in 2022-23 and is expected to maintain this momentum throughout 2023-24.