ITC, L&T, HUL India's most admired companies

The company has scored highest on parameters such as corporate governance, endurance, social impact, product quality and employee empowerment

FMCG giant ITC is India's most admired company, followed by engineering major L&T and Hindustan Unilever Ltd, according to a list compiled by Fortune India with global management consultancy Hay Group.

ITC scored the highest on parameters such as corporate governance, endurance, social impact, product quality and employee empowerment.

"This year, two criteria in particular, corporate governance and social impact, separated the Top 10 from the rest of the winners. ITC has topped the list by displacing group company TCS in 2014," Hay Group India Country Head Sridhar Ganesan said.

Second-ranked L&T has been rated highest on leadership while HUL has been rated highest on investment, talent development, product quality, leadership, innovativeness and global footprint.

Maruti Suzuki, State Bank of India, TCS, Coca Cola, Samsung, Tata Motors and ONGC among the top 10 firms.

"Peer admiration, especially on qualitative parameters is always difficult. And that's really what the survey boils down to; are you good enough for your equals to respect you," Fortune India Editor D N Mukerjea said.

The research is based on peer ranking methodology, which in its first phase covered 523 companies across the economy's 15 key sectors.

Around 443 respondents participated to rank their peers across a scale of ten parameters like corporate governance, endurance, impact on society, investment value, product /service quality, innovation, quality of leadership, talent development, employee empowerment and business footprint.

In the second phase, 84 respondents evaluated the top 45 companies on the basis of the same parameters.