Despite a bitter legal spat with ousted chairman Cyrus Mistry, Tata group has retained its position as India’s leading brand. Unveiling a list of 100 most valued Indian brands, valuation firm Brand Finance said, Tata’s value fell by 4% to USD 13.1 billion (Rs 87,220 crore) in 2017 but it continues to be India’s top brand. The firm expressed hope that Tata’s new chairman Natarajan Chandrasekaran will provide the ‘steady ship’ to salt to software conglomerate.
“There has been intense speculation as to whether brand value has fallen due to Tata’s boardroom drama,” David Haigh, CEO, Brand Finance said. “In our view this is emphatically not the case. Tata’s brand strength index score in fact improved significantly this year and its rating was upgraded from A+ to AA+,” he added.
Tata Group is followed by Airtel at the second place and LIC at the third. The Indian telecom giant was valued at USD 7.7 billion while LIC’s valuation stood at USD 6.8 billion.
Infosys and HCL Technologies continues to be among most valued brands and occupy positions in the top 10.
“IT services brands continue to be one of India’s great success stories, dominating not just the national rankings but the international rankings of their sector too.” Indian e-commerce player Flipkart made huge gains with its brand value more than doubling last year to Rs 3,457 crore. The compant is looking to consolidate its hold in the market with talks of merger with its peer Snapdeal as it looks to take on Amazon. Struggling to keep up against its Chinese counterpart, India smartphone maker Micromax saw the largest fall in brand value by Rs 39.5% to Rs 2984 crore.
