IT major Infosys Technologies, petrochemicals giant Reliance Industries and two-wheeler company Hero Honda Motors have been ranked as the top three companies in India for 'overall leadership' in the Far Eastern Economic Review's annual company survey, The Review 200: Asia's Leading Companies.

Infosys Technologies took the top honours in three of the individually ranked leadership categories for 'high quality services/products,' 'management with a long-term vision' and 'a company that others try to emulate.'

Reliance Industries, for the fourth year running, ranked No. 2 in the survey for 'overall leadership'. Reliance was also ranked No.2 in 'long-term vision,' 'financial soundness' and 'companies that others try to emulate.'

Overall leadership
Rank	Company
1	Infosys Technologies
2	Reliance Industries
3	Hero Honda
4	Wipro
5	Hindustan Lever

Long-term Vision
Rank	Company
1	Infosys Technologies
2	Reliance Industries
3	Tata Motors
4	Wipro
5	Larsen & Toubro

The survey, now in its 11th year, was conducted by ACNielsen International Research (Hong Kong) and included more than 150 multinational corporations, which were chosen based on their market capitalisation and the strength of their presence in the region.

The other five Indian companies in the top 10 list incldue HDFC Bank (6th), Ranbaxy Laboratories (7th), Dr Reddy's Laboratories (8th), Indian Oil Corporation (9th), and ICICI Bank (10th).

Respondents were asked to rank companies using a scale of one to seven on their overall leadership performance. Those who did not recognise a company's name gave that company a score of zero.

They were also asked to indicate which of the following criteria applied to listed companies:

• High quality services or products.
• Management with a long-term vision.
• Innovative in responding to customers' needs.
• Financially sound.
• A company that others try to emulate.

In all, 2,806 people responded to the survey, of which 61 per cent were FEER subscribers.

The balance were readers of partner publications: The Asian Wall Street Journal, CommonWealth (Taiwan), Han-Kyung Business Weekly (South Korea) and Chinese WSJ.com.

In the 12 country polls, 10 of last year's No. 1 companies retained their rankings in the 2003 survey.

The two exceptions were in Malaysia and Thailand. The 2003 poll of companies ranked No. 1 in their respective countries are:

Australia (Woolworths), China (Haier Group), Hong Kong (HSBC Holdings), Indonesia (Indofood Sukses Makmur), Japan (Toyota Motor), Malaysia (Petronas), the Philippines (Jollibee Foods), Singapore (Singapore Airlines), South Korea (Samsung Electronics), Taiwan (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company), Thailand (Siam Cement).

For the ninth year running, computer software giant Microsoft topped the list for the leading multinational company doing business in Asia.

The Review 200 top 10 multinationals working in Asia are:

• Microsoft
• Nokia
• Toyota
• Motor
• Intel
• Coca-Cola
• Sony
• IBM
• General Electric
• Nike
• Citigroup