Tatas, RIL, Infosys among world's 50 most innovative cos

NEW YORK: Three Indian entities -- Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, diversified conglomerate Tata Group and IT bellwether Infosys Technologies -- have entered BusinessWeek magazine's list of world's 50 most innovative companies, topped by iPhone maker Apple.

The league of innovative firms also features NRI Lakshmi Mittal-led world's largest steel producer ArcelorMittal.

Among the 50 companies, Tata Group ranks 13th, Reliance Industries 15th and Infosys 26th.

Tata Group and Reliance Industries have been ranked ahead of American industrial conglomerate General Electric (17), German car manufacturer BMW (20), Japanese auto firm Honda Motor (22) and telecom major AT&T (23), among others.

However, while the Tata Group slipped in ranking from the sixth place in 2008, Reliance Industries has improved its previous year's rank 19. Infosys was not in the list in 2008.

BusinessWeek has placed ArcelorMittal at the 35th spot. Among the top five, Apple is followed by Internet search giant Google at the second position. Both companies have retained their respective ranks from last year.

Japanese auto maker Toyota Motor, software major Microsoft and Japan's Nintendo are at the third, fourth and fifth positions, respectively.