Micro-irrigation firm Jain Irrigation Systems is the only company from India named in Fortune magazine’s inaugural ‘Change the World’ list of companies. The company has made significant progress in addressing major social problems as a part of their core business strategy. The list also includes global giants Google, Facebook, Toyota, Walmart, MasterCard, Novartis, Alibaba, IBM, Starbucks, Ikea and Nike.

Jain Irrigation ranks 7th on the list of 50 companies on Fortune’s new “Change the World list” that has been topped by UK-based Vodafone and Kenyan telecom Safaricom and includes Bangladesh-based Grameen Bank and Afghan telecom company Roshan.  Jain Irrigation has built its business by improving the livelihoods of five million small farmers in India.

The Maharashtra-based company began selling micro-irrigation systems in 1986, when it recognised that the technology could be adapted for local growers, whose tiny landholdings were traditionally watered by rain or blunt flooding techniques. The company, the world’s second-largest seller of drip-irrigation systems with revenues of $990 million, now does business in 116 countries.

Fortune Magazine

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