Tata has emerged the top Indian-owned brand in A&M magazine’s top brands survey. It is ahead of other homegrown brands such as Nirma, HMT, Godrej, Fevicol, Dabur, Amul, Hero, SBI and Bisleri.

But among Indian and foreign owned brands in India, Tata ranks third behind Colgate, the leader, and Dettol. The fourth and fifth slots have been bagged by Hindustan lever soap brands, Lux and Lifebuoy, respectively.

Interestingly, in the last top brands survey carried out by the magazine in 1999, Tata occupied the 22nd spot. Since then, it has leapfrogged into the top bracket. Tata’s gain has been Amul’s loss, it slipped from the second place in the 1999 survey to 42 this year.

The survey says Tata has been able to improve its position largely due to the recent success of Tata Indica. "The only major change since 1999 has been the extra salience the brand – and its recognised logo-has got on the back of Tata Engineering’s small car, Tata Indica," the survey says. Apart from Tata Indica, Tata Tea is the other well-known brand from the Tata stable. Through the Tata Salt brand, Tata also has a marked presence in Indian kitchens.

Tata has topped in the north, ahead of Colgate and Dettol. In the east, it has been ranked third. However, in the west and south, the brand does not even feature among the top ten. Of the metro brands, it has been placed at number three, while among urban as well as rural brands, it has been rated number four. For the first time, Tata has been rated among the top 10 rural brands. Amond housewives and young men, it has bagged the fifth spot. The other homegrown brands making it to the list of the top 60 are Bisleri, Maruti, LIC and Kissan.