Tata Motors only Indian firm on top-50 global R&D list

Tata Motors has entered the top-50 league of the world's biggest companies in terms of their R&D investments, topped by German automaker Volskwagen.

On the annual Industrial R&D Investment Scoreboard for 2015, prepared by European Commission, Volkswagen is followed by Samsung, Microsoft, Intel and Novartis in the top-five.

Tata Motors has moved up from 104th position last year to 49th now and has also shown the largest increase in R&D (Research and Development) investments on the list. However, most of this R&D is at its UK subsidiary Jaguar Land Rover.

In the expanded list of the world's 2,500 top R&D firms, there are a total of 26 Indian companies, as against 829 from the US, 360 from Japan, 301 from China, 114 from Taiwan, 80 from Switzerland and 27 each from Canada and Israel.

There are 608 companies from the EU countries, including 136 from Germany, 135 from the UK, 86 from France, 42 from Sweden and 32 from Italy.

India is overall placed at 15th position in terms of the number of companies on the list.

Among other Indian companies, Dr Reddy's Laboratories is ranked 404th, M&M is at 451st, Reliance Industries at 540th, Lupin at 624th, Sun Pharma at 669th, Cipla at 831st and Infosys at 884th.

Other Indian firms on the list include ONGC, Tata Steel, Wockhardt, Cadila Healthcare, Bajaj Auto, Hindalco, BHEL, Piramal Enterprises, Wipro, Helios and Matheson, HCC, Ashok Leyland, Apollo Tyres, TCS, Suzlon Energy, TVS Motor, Force India, HCL Tech and Glenmark.

While the top-five companies globally have retained their respective positions, Google has moved up to sixth place (from 9th), while Pfizer has moved to 10th (from 15th). Roche, Johnson and Johnson and Toyota are ranked 7th, 8th and 9th, respectively.