Ni Hao, India!

1. This comparative analysis is based on the explanation given by Tim Worstall which appeared in Forbes in 2011, in which he suggests that the Gross Domestic Product or GDP of a company is best calculated by adding its Net Profit and Total Wage Spend, and that a company’s Total Revenue (or Turnover as it is sometimes called) is not a figure that can be equated with the GDP of a country or state. “GDP”, writes Worstall, “is the ‘value of goods and services’ produced in a country in a year. It is very much NOT the turnover in that country. It is the value added through economic activity. Revenues for a company are of course turnover: so we cannot compare turnover to GDP. What we actually want to compare is the value added. So, what is the value added of a company? One definition is the profit made by the company. Other theoreticians say we should add the profit and the wages paid out by the company together [roughly the ‘Income Approach’] and this gives us the total value added.”

2. Only those Chinese and Indian companies that appear in the 2013 Forbes List of Top 2000 global companies have been considered.

3. GDP at constant prices (or the Real GDP), that takes into account inflation, is considered a better indicator of economic progress than nominal GDP (or GDP at current prices) and has been used for Indian states in this analysis. GDP figures of companies (Net Profit plus Wage spend) are at best a rough estimate and should be viewed as such. Also, the company GDP, because it factors in current prices for Net Profit and Wage Spend, is closer to being Nominal GDP than Real GDP (Nominal GDP value is always a little higher than Real GDP value). GDP of a company therefore appears in quotes as “GDP”.

4. All financial data has been sourced from Google Finance and in some cases from Forbes. Where Total Wage Spend was not available from Google Finance, data has been sourced from individual company Annual Reports, failing which sector-wise average Wage Spend has been used in a few cases.

5. In 2011, The Economist published a map of India where GDP of states was equated with GDP of countries.

6. Chinese, Hong Kong and Indian currency exchange rate information is from Xe.com and Tradingeconomies.com. Rs 65 to a USD dollar has been used for converting State GDPs into USD as the Planning Commission GDP figures were calculated during the period this exchange rate was applicable. Chinese Yuan Renminbi: USD exchange rate used is 0.164. Hong Kong Dollar: USD exchange rate used is 0.12.

7. The 2012-13 GDP figures for Gujarat, Rajasthan, Kerala, Goa, Mizoram and Chandigarh were not available and were calculated using their latest GDP growth rates (2004-05 constant prices) as follows: Gujarat: 8.53%; Rajasthan: 6.11%; Kerala: 9.51%; Goa: 9.39%; Mizoram: 10.09%; Chandigarh: 14.88%.

8. Table 1. 2012-13 GDP of Indian States at 2004-05 constant prices and Chinese companies with equivalent “GDP”.

9. Table 2. List of Chinese companies and their estimated “GDP” (All figures in USD Billion)

10. Table 3. List of Chinese companies grouped as China-9 and their estimated “GDP” (All figures in USD Billion)

11. Table 4. List of Chinese companies grouped as China-23 and their estimated “GDP” (All figures in USD Billion)

12. Table 5. List of Chinese companies grouped as China-46 and their estimated “GDP” (All figures in USD Billion)

13. Table 6. List of all the 56 Indian companies – grouped here as India-56 – that feature in Forbes Global 2000 and their estimated “GDP” (All figures in USD Billion).