Class Of 2024: India’s Best CEOs navigate uncertainty, volatility

ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY, supply chain disruptions, energy transition, shifting weather patterns — navigating any one of those can be a nightmare for a corporate leader. Add to that the pressures of quarterly financials, share price performance, rapidly changing demand and supply and the constant need for human resource upgradation and you have a perfect cauldron for a CEO to stir his way through to success.

Fortune India’s class of Best CEOs 2024 across 26 sectors reflects all of that and more as some of India’s most successful corporate titans left an indelible impression on their companies and the industries they lead. Among those are: Best of the Best Sajjan Jindal who started from scratch to create India’s biggest steel company with 28.2 million tonne capacity; S.N. Subrahmanyan of Larsen & Toubro who is transforming the construction giant into a technology-led, future-ready conglomerate; Vivek Chaand Sehgal of Samvardhana Motherson who has created a $12 billion auto components empire across 44 countries; and Sanjiv Puri of ITC who led the metamorphosis of what was primarily a cigarette maker (which accounted for 90% of its revenue) into an FMCG, hotels, agri and paper giant like no other in India Inc. Read about the heroics of India’s Best CEOs 2024.

Meanwhile, India seems to be getting closer to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream to make semiconductors — the lifeline of all things technology, electronic and electric — within the country. The catalyst, yet again, was the Tata Group which was first off the block as Tata Electronics set out to build a mega semiconductor fabrication plant with an investment of approximately ₹91,000 crore. It’s a complex technology. On average, each segment of the semiconductor value chain involves 25 countries in direct supply chain. But India isn’t overawed.

Among other large groups working on various parts of the value chain are: Adani Group, Larsen & Toubro, Murugappa Group, HCL Group, Hiranandani, and Zoho. Read about the race to build India’s first indigenously made semiconductors in this issue.

Staying on technology, such deep faith in tech is bearing outstanding results for corporates that were early movers in tech transition in India Inc. At L&T, CMD S.N. Subrahmanyan can monitor any of the 1,000-odd projects the company is executing at any given point in time through the 14,000-plus devices and machines connected to L&T’s command centre in Mumbai.

At Reliance Industries, chairman Mukesh Ambani believes technology has been the greatest wealth creator for nations and companies: Reliance is thus becoming a “net producer of technology and is transforming into a deep-tech company with advanced manufacturing capabilities.” P.B. Jayakumar captures why deep-tech fascinates corporate leaders.

Next, does spiralling sovereign debt impact the poor? Sure enough, it does. National borrowings have touched an all-time high of $97 trillion in 2023. As nations pile up debt disproportionate from their ability to earn to pay it off, they have to cope with an unusually high interest payout from the country’s annual income. Sometimes as high as 60% of income now for countries such as Sri Lanka. International Monetary Fund reckons 100 countries will have to reduce spending on health, education and social protection to repay debt. Read Rajiv Ranjan Singh’s story.