TIME’s 100 most influential companies: Two Indian firms in the list

The TIME on Wednesday released its list of 100 most influential companies of this year. The list is divided into five categories titled: Leaders, Disruptors, Innovators, Titans, and Pioneers. Each category has 20 companies listed under it. This year, two Indian companies made it to the list: Meesho and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). Both of these companies featured under the ‘pioneer’ category.

How is the list made?

The TIME said that it seeks nominations from across sectors, and poll a global network of contributors and correspondents, as well as outside experts. Then each company is evaluated on key factors, including impact, innovation, ambition, and success.

Some notable companies

American socialite Kim Kardashian’s clothing brand Skims, Sam Altman’s OpenAI, footwear maker Crocs, Elon Musk’s SpaceX, language learning app Duolingo, Canva, Discord, Disney, and IBM are among the notable companies in the list.

Meesho

“Bangalore-based Meesho, the most-downloaded shopping app in the world in early 2022, caters to customers priced out by Amazon and Walmart,” the TIME noted. Unlike its competitors, Meesho doesn’t charge sellers a commission, which it says enables it to sell 60% of its products for less than $4, in reach for Indian families that make less than $6,000 a year. But the path to online-­shopping domination won’t be smooth: while it expects to reach profitability this fiscal year, it’ll have to overcome challenges like rising competition from other companies, the magazine added.

NPCI

“As smartphone and internet use has grown in India, the NPCI launched United Payments Interface (UPI), which allows instant money transfers via mobile apps and QR codes, and has brought digital payments to nearly 300 million users, replacing debit and credit cards and enabling e-commerce growth in a country that has long clung to cash,” the TIME said. The company has had huge growth: in 2021–22, it clocked a whopping 45 billion transactions and accounted for 52% of India’s digital payments, it added.