Since its beginnings in 1957, plastics manufacturing has become one of India’s fastest growing industrial sectors. According to the Indian Brand Equity Foundation, an Indian government agency, the industry employs around 4 million people in over 30,000 manufacturing units of which 85 percent to 90 percent are small- to medium-sized enterprises. India’s top plastics manufacturers are divisions of larger energy or other industrial conglomerates.

Reliance Industries Limited

Headquartered in Mumbai, in the Indian state of Maharashtra, Reliance Industries Limited is a holding company for businesses operating within the entire the oil, gas and petrochemicals value chain: oil and gas exploration, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, textiles and retail outlets. It is also India’s biggest private sector corporation in terms of revenues. Reliance is India’s leading plastics producer, it is the world’s foremost producer of polyester fiber and yarn, and the world’s fifth largest producer of polypropylene and paraxylene.

Indian Oil Corporation Limited

With headquarters in the Indian capital New Delhi, state-controlled Indian Oil Corporation, also called IndianOil, is the country’s largest public sector corporation. According to the company’s June 2014 shareholding pattern, the Indian central government holds 68.57 percent of its equity, with the remainder held by state governments, Indian financial institutions, foreign investors and nonresident Indians. It is an integrated oil, gas and petrochemicals company producing mainly high-density polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene plastics.

Finolex Industries Limited

Finolex Industries Limited is India’s premier manufacturer of rigid polyvinyl chloride pipes and fittings, and the country’s second-largest producer of PVC resins. Headquartered in Pune, in the state of Maharashtra, it is part of the Finolex Group that is the world’s largest manufacturer of insulated PVC cables for the automobile industry. The group also manufactures optical fiber cables and rods.

Gas Authority of India Limited

Called by its initials GAIL and headquartered in New Delhi, this firm is India’s largest natural gas processing and distribution company. As of June 2014, the Indian central government held 56.10 percent of GAIL’s equity. Indian state governments, financial institutions, Indian citizens and foreign institutional investors hold the remainder. GAIL’s petrochemicals division produces high-density polyethylene, linear low-density polyethylene and polypropylene.

Plastiblends India Limited

Headquartered in Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra, Plastiblends pioneered masterbatch manufacturing for the Indian plastics industry. Masterbatches are stabilizers, colorants and other additives such as electrostatic inhibitors that are used in processing raw polymers into finished plastics. Plastiblends also produces compounds to prevent fibrillation of plastics, such as woven plastic products, during stretching. It belongs to the Kolsite Group, a leader in the manufacture of plastics extrusion machinery.