World's 100 most ethical companies

Food and beverages maker PepsiCo and software manufacturer Adobe Systems have made it to the list of world's most ethical companies for this year which are led by CEOs of Indian origin.

PepsiCo and Adobe Systems are headed by Indian origin chief executives Indra Nooyi and Shantanu Narayen, respectively. Both the companies have cornered a place in the list of 100 most ethical companies for 2010, as per the report by a research-based Ethisphere Institute.

However, no Indian company has found a place in the list, which is dominated by Amercian companies. Debt-ridden Hartford Financial Services have also made it to the list, which was earlier headed by India-origin chief Ramani Ayer.

He left Hartford Financial Services in June last year after serving for 12 years. According to the report, the world's most ethical company designation is awarded to those firms that have leading ethics and compliance programmes, compared to their industry peers.

Interestingly, the companies that have secured a berth on the list are from wide range of industries, right from banking to consumer goods to auto, retail and media.

The list also includes search engine giant Google, global lender Standard Chartered Bank, hardware maker Hewlett-Packard, consumer products manufacturer L'Oreal, diversified industries General Electric, telecom company Vodafone and media and entertainment firm Time Warner.

Meanwhile, global consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture, which has ended its sponsorship of Tiger Woods also found a place on the list.

"Of these companies (100), 26 are new to the list in 2010 and 24 companies dropped off from the 2009 list. These 'drop offs' generally occurred because of litigation and ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industry," Ethisphere Institute said.

Some of the companies who have dropped from this year list includes car maker Toyota, global lender HSBC, hardware maker Dell, software major Oracle Corp and fast-food chain McDonald's.

World's 100 ethical companies

Aerospace	Apparel	Auctions	Automotive	Banking
Harris Corporation Rockwell Collins Inc The Aerospace Corporation	Comme Il Faut Nike Patagonia	Barrett Jackson Auction Company	Cummins Ford Motor Company Johnson Controls	Rabobank Standard Chartered Bank Westpac Banking Corporation
Business Services	Chemicals	Computer Hardware	Computer Software	Construction and engineering
Accenture Noblis Pitney Bowes Dun & Bradstreet Paychex	Ashland Dow Corning Corporation Ecolab Flint Hills Resources	Hewlett-Packard Company	Adobe Systems Salesforce.com Symantec Teradata	CH2M Hill CRH Fluor Granite Construction Parsons
Consumer Electronics	Consumer Productss	Diversified Industries	Electronics and Semiconductors	Energy and Utilities
Ricoh Xerox	Henkel Kao L'oreal Mattel	General Electric Co	Freescale Semiconductor Texas Instruments	Duke Energy FPL Group National Grid Sempra Energy Wisconsin Energy Corporation
Environmental Services	Financial Services	Food and Beverage	Food Service	Food Stores
Waste Management	American Express The Hartford The Principal Financial Group	Campbell Soup Company General Mills PepsiCo Solae	ARAMARK Sodexo	Trader Joe's Wegmans Whole Foods Market
Forestry, Paper and Packaging	Healthcare	Hotels, Travel & Hospitality	Industrial Manufacturing	Insurance
International Paper Stora Enso Oyj Svenska Cellulosa Weyerhaeuser	Cleveland Clinic Hospital Corporation of America J M Smith Corporation Johns Hopkins Premier	Rezidor Hotel Group Wyndham Worldwide	Caterpillar Deere & Company Eaton Milliken and Company Rockwell Automation Timken	Aflac Swiss Re Wisconsin Physicians Service
Internet	Media, Publishing and Entertainment	Medical Devices	Pharmaceuticals	Real Estate
Google Zappos	Thomson Reuters Time Warner	Becton, Dickinson and Company Royal Philips	AstraZeneca Novo Nordisk	Jones Lang LaSalle
Restaurants and Cafes	Best Buy	Telecom Hardware	Telecom Services	Transportation and Logistics
Starbucks Coffee Company Specialty Retail	Gap IKEA Target Ten Thousand Villages	Avaya Cisco Systems	Cummins Ford Motor Company Johnson Controls	Nippon Yusen Kabushi Kaisha UPS