Best Annual Reports in India 2025-26: Our Ranking of 20 Listed Companies

Which Indian company publishes the best annual report? We read the FY 2025-26 annual reports of 20 large listed companies, cover to cover, and scored each one on the same seven-point card. Hindustan Zinc's integrated annual report comes out on top at 30 out of 35, with TCS a point behind and HUL third. The full ranking, the best report in each category and the habits that separate the leaders are below, with a link to the detailed review of every company.

The scores are our editorial opinion of the published documents, applied the same way to every report. They aren't an award, and nobody paid for or was consulted on a score.

The ranking: best annual reports in India, FY 2025-26

The average across all 20 was 24.6.

How we scored the reports

Every report was read in full and scored out of 5 on seven criteria, for a total out of 35:

1. Strategy and narrative: does the report say clearly where the company is going and why, in its own voice?
2. Integrated thinking and the capitals: are strategy, risk, the capitals and value creation genuinely connected, with numbers?
3. BRSR and ESG integration: is sustainability data part of the story, assured, with targets against actuals?
4. Governance disclosure: board responsibility, committees, remuneration and related-party matters, stated plainly.
5. Financial storytelling: do the numbers come with honest explanation, including the bad years?
6. Design and readability: can a shareholder find and follow what matters?
7. Digital version: bookmarks, links, single pages that read on a phone, and an online edition.

The same reader applied the same card to every report, and each review sets out the page references behind its scores. The 20 companies are large listed names across sectors. They aren't a sample of every listed company, so a strong report outside this group won't appear here.

The best annual report in India this year: Hindustan Zinc

Hindustan Zinc's integrated report scored 5 on three criteria (integrated thinking, BRSR and ESG integration, and governance disclosure) and is the only report on our card to score 5 for governance. Across 610 printed pages it does the things most reports only gesture at. There's an "About the Report" page carrying the Board and management's statement of responsibility. The materiality chapter prints its financial thresholds. The goals-against-status spread is candid enough to print "2 fatalities". And the CFO's statement reads as an argument, not a list.

It isn't flawless. Design and readability scored 3, and the PDF carries template leftovers. But no other report connected strategy, capitals and ESG data as tightly, or disclosed governance as plainly.

Close behind: TCS and HUL

TCS (29) puts everything in one document, with the BRSR inside the report and cross-referenced from the capitals. Its business-model spread has numbers in every box (inputs, activities and outcomes by capital), and its environmental disclosure uses a goal, target and status layout. It lost points on financial storytelling, not on structure.

HUL (28) is one of only two reports to score 5 for financial storytelling, alongside Infosys. Its "Interplay of Capitals" page makes integrated thinking concrete, its eleven-year table is disciplined about continuing operations, and the new CEO's letter gets to the numbers by its second paragraph.

The best report in each category

Two categories had no 5 at all. Nobody's strategy narrative or design fully convinced us, which says something about how rarely Indian reports combine a clear forward story with a document that's easy to navigate.

ITC is the odd case: near the bottom overall at 21, yet the only 5 for the digital version. Its contents page is hyperlinked to every section, every page header links back to it, and the PDF is laid out as single pages that read on a phone. It's a small piece of engineering that every reporting team could copy this week.

What the best annual reports do differently

They put numbers in the value-creation model. The weakest value-creation diagrams are icons and arrows. The best (TCS, L&T and Tata Steel among them) put a figure in every box, from physical inputs in tonnes to outcomes by capital, and Tata Steel shows a volume at every step of its value chain.

They print targets against actuals, including the misses. Hindustan Zinc prints its fatalities on its goals page. Adani Ports keeps the fatalities line in its 2030 targets table. SBI prints a materiality table with targets and performance side by side, misses included. Asian Paints and Bajaj Finance show five-year and twelve-year charts with the bad years left in. Readers trust a report more when it shows where the company fell short.

They sign and date their responsibility. Hindustan Zinc, Asian Paints and LTM each carry a board responsibility statement with its approval date, and HDFC Bank explains how the integrated report is governed and approved. It's one page, and it tells a reader the board actually owns the document.

They show how materiality was decided. Hindustan Zinc and Asian Paints print their financial thresholds, and Asian Paints also lists the topics that dropped out and has the process assured. HDFC Bank sets out its method and weighting and gives each material topic its own page, with impact and financial materiality separated. L&T's assessment is third-party, dated and ESRS-aligned.

They don't confuse length with quality. ICICI Bank's integrated report is 62 pages and Infosys's integrated section is 24, and both scored 25, the same as reports several times longer. Adani Ports' report runs to 847 pages and scored 22, losing marks on design. Both of those reviews end with the same advice to other reporting teams: copy the length.

They're built for screens as well as print. Eleven of the 20 companies have an online edition, but several PDFs never tell the reader it exists, and reports laid out as spreads are hard to read on a phone. Our guide to digital annual reports covers what a proper digital edition adds.

Where reports fell short

The lowest scores cluster in a few places. Integrated thinking scored 1 for ITC and Sun Pharma, whose reports keep strategy, capitals and ESG in separate compartments. BRSR and ESG integration scored 2 for NTPC and Bajaj Finance. Design scored 2 for L&T and Adani Ports, both very long reports. And SBI's digital version scored 2: no online edition this year, bookmarks with leaked file names, and scanned assurance statements. None of these needs a bigger budget to fix. They need earlier decisions about structure and ownership, which is where preparing next year's annual report should start.

What reporting teams can copy this year

• Hindustan Zinc's "About the Report" page with the board's statement of responsibility.
• TCS's business-model spread, with a number in every box.
• HUL's "Interplay of Capitals" page and its eleven-year table.
• L&T's results table, with recurring, exceptional and overall profit on adjacent lines.
• HDFC Bank's materiality chapter, from method to a page per topic.
• Bharti Airtel's footnote explaining when an emissions cut reflects a boundary or grid-factor change.
• Asian Paints' ESG snapshot with baseline, performance and target columns.
• Infosys's highlights page, with adjusted measures footnoted and statutory profit in the table.
• ITC's hyperlinked contents with a return link on every page.
• Sun Pharma's governance timeline, dating every board and KMP change.

Each review goes into the detail, with page references. If you're planning next year's report, our guides to choosing a theme, what an annual report costs and annual report awards in India pick up where this ranking leaves off.