Mumbai: Global Finance, a leading international finance magazine, has ranked Wipro the ‘Best Company in the Computer Software sector in Asia,’ in its annual World’s Best Companies 2002 survey. The award will be presented at a special ceremony in New York in January 2003.

Announcing the results, the magazine said: “The Bangalore-based Wipro, India’s biggest software company by market capitalisation, has been a solid performer in a tough market. Its revenue increased 22 per cent, and the net income from continuing operations rose 10 per cent for the quarter ended June 30. And Wipro’s shares traded in New York increased in value by one-third during the year ended 30 September 2002, far outperforming the S&P 500 Index.”

“Excellence in business is most apparent and coveted in difficult economic times. The companies we have identified this year exemplify a level of operations that will keep them the global leaders in their sectors,” said Global Finance publisher Joseph Giarraputo, in a statement in the magazine.

The fifth annual exclusive Global Finance survey of the World’s Best Companies profiles global titans in 28 industries or sectors and identifies the top regional players. The selection of the winners involved assessing both objective and subjective criteria including revenue and profitability growth, market capitalisation growth, social responsibility, percentage of revenues and employees outside the home country, technology or product breakthroughs, M&A success, crisis control and aggressiveness in market building.

Commenting on the economic downturn the magazine said that running a big global company against a backdrop of a stubbornly weak global economy, still-sliding equity and corporate bond markets and scandals of corporate governance, hasn’t been easy during the past year. “But some chief executives and their staffs have succeeded in using the downturn as a chance to strengthen their positions as global leaders in their industries and seek new opportunities for expansion or innovation.”