Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel among Forbes' most innovative companies

Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints and Bharti Airtel are the three Indian firms among Forbes’ list of world’s 100 most innovative companies.

This year Salesforce.com has replaced Tesla Motors for number one position.

While HUL and Asian Paints have moved up in their ranks to seventh and eighth respectively (from 31 st and 18 th last year), Bharti Airtel has entered the ranking at 78th position.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Sun Pharma and Larsen & Toubro were also on the 2016 list but they failed to make the cut this year, bringing down the total number of Indian firms from five to three.

The annual ‘World’s Most Innovative Companies’ are the ones that investors expect to be innovative now and in the future. Besides, to be included in the list, firms need seven years of public financial data and USD 10 billion in market cap.

“We include only industries that are known to invest in innovation, excluding industries that have no measurable investment in R&D, so banks and other financial services do not make the list. Nor do energy and mining firms, whose market value is tied more to commodity prices than innovation,” the magazine said.