While many Indian companies from Tata to Bharti and many more are establishing their shops in other countries, no Indian brand managed to become the world's most valuable brand in the 50 Top valuable brand list of the Forbes magazine.
"This (Apple) is a company that has faced setbacks before and bounced back to become the world's most valuable brand--worth USD 57.4 billion," Forbes said, explaining the company's number 1 position in its Top 50 world's most valuable brands 2010 list. India inc watchers say that Indian companies must work hard in order to make their brand visible all over the world.
"Apple shows just how a brand can survive and thrive even when a parent company stumbles. Apple's sales in the late 1990s plummeted 46 per cent over a four-year stretch while the company lost money seven times over eight quarters", said the magazine.
Interestingly, tech brands occupied four of the first five places in the rankings and claimed 30 per cent of the top 50 brands. Financial services and food and beverage firms each captured six spots. Tech major Apple, which topped the list, was followed by software major Microsoft with a brand value of USD 56.6 billion.
Beverages firm, Coca Cola was third at USD 55.4 billion, followed by technology giant IBM, now worth USD 43 billion.
Search engine Google was fifth in the ranking with USD 39.7 billion.McDonald's, General Electric, Marlboro, Intel and Finnish handset maker Nokia featured in the top 10 list.
"The brands on our list fared a little better, with sales on average flat in 2009. Some brands were hit hard by the economic downturn as well as their own missteps," the Forbes noted.
Toyota, Vodafone, Pepsi, Nescafe, Frito-Lay, ESPN and Gucci were the other brands in the top 50 list.
Ace shuttler Saina Nehwal continued to shine as she was on Friday selected for the prestigious Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award for her oustanding achievements on the badminton court.
The Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award is the highest award given for achievements in sports in India.
National sports awards (Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna, Arjuna and Dhyan Chand) selection committee headed by PT Usha met on Friday and decided to bestow the Khel Ratna on Saina after considering her brilliant performance in the last one year, PTI reported.
"I am really happy. It's unbelievable, a dream come true for me to get another within one year. National awards gives you a lot of motivation and it definitely has inspired me to achieve bigger glories for my country," Saina said.
"I have done well in the last two years and the three titles that I won recently have really boosted my confidence. I am now preparing for the World Championship and I hope to win the title," she added.
The World number two Indian has been in red-hot form in the last one year, where she reached the semifinals of the All England Super Series in March before winning three successive titles in June.
The award, to be given away on August 29 by President Pratibha Patil, consists of a cash amount of Rs7.5 lakh, a scroll of honour and medal.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has submitted its status report on the Sohrabuddin Sheikh fake encounter case to the Supreme Court.
CBI in its status report has asked for the case to be shifted out of Gujarat as it feels that investigation cannot be carried out in an impartial manner in the State, ANI reported.
The CBI is also learnt to have said that it will investigate the fake encounter of Tulsiram Prajapati, the man who allegedly witnessed the killing of Sohrabuddin.
The apex Court had set July 31 as the deadline for the CBI to submit its status report into the case.
According to sources, former Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah, who is in judicial custody till August 7, was not cooperating in the probe and there was a need to interrogate him.
Most of Shah's replies according to the agency were evasive.
Meanwhile, the CBI team is likely to seek permission from its headquarters to question Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with the case.
