While PepsiCo’s Indra Nooyi is a celebrated business woman globally, the other five CEOs also carry enormous respect in their respective fields. Ayer has held various senior positions in Hartford group since 1973 and is also a member of the board of directors of the American Insurance Association.

Similarly, Raj Gupta joined Rohm and Haas in 1971 as a financial analyst and has held various positions of increasing responsibility at the company. He was elected to the board of directors in December 1998 and became vice chairman in January 1999. Subsequently, he was named chairman and CEO in October 1999 and assumed additional title of president in early 2005.

Jai Nagarkatti has been president and CEO of Sigma-Aldrich since January 2006 and has spent over 30 years at the company. Tellabs CEO and president Prabhu joined the company in 2004 and prior to that has been CEO of Alcatel Urm of the French telecom major, between 1997-99. He began his telecom career in 1980 at AT&T’s Bell Laboratories as a member of the technical staff.

Talwalkar, who was appointed as president and CEO of LSI, joined the company from Intel, the global leader in semiconductor space, where he served as a vice president. However, on a disappointing note all the six Indian run companies, including PepsiCo, have moved down the ranking on this year’s Fortune list.

While PepsiCo is down two places from 61st to 63rd rank, Hartford has moved down from 78th rank last year to 82nd position, Rohm & Haas is down from 282 to 292, Sigma-Aldrich has lost 15 positions from 909 to 924, Tellabs from 838th to 845th and LSI Corporation has slopped from 829th to 864th position in this year’s list.