With reference to valuable I.T. Brands, which of the following statements is/are correct ? 1. 'Accenture' is the most valuable Worldwide I.T. Brand in 2022. 2. T.C.S. is No. 2 in global I.T. Services Brands in 2022. Select the correct answer from the code given below : Code :
- (a)Both 1 and 2
- (b)Only 1
- (c)Neither 1 nor 2
- (d)Only 2
Correct — A, Both 1 and 2. The question is built on Brand Finance's 'IT Services 25' ranking for 2022, published in late January 2022 — roughly five months before the 12 June 2022 exam, which is why it was fair game. In that edition Accenture was the world's most valuable IT services brand, with a brand value of about USD 36.2 billion, so statement 1 is correct. Tata Consultancy Services was placed second, at about USD 16.8 billion, so statement 2 is also correct. Infosys came third at about USD 12.8 billion and was reported as the fastest-growing brand in the table. Both statements therefore hold as of 2022 and the key marks (a). Read the code carefully in this paper: in the UPPSC 2022 Paper-I two-statement items, (a) is 'Both 1 and 2', (b) is 'Only 1', (c) is 'Neither 1 nor 2' and (d) is 'Only 2' — 'Only 1' sits at (b), not at (a) as in many other papers.
- (b)Only 1 — This accepts Accenture at the top but rejects TCS's second place. TCS was in fact ranked No. 2 in the 2022 IT Services 25 table at about USD 16.8 billion, ahead of Infosys, so statement 2 cannot be dropped.
- (c)Neither 1 nor 2 — Both statements are supported by the same published 2022 ranking — Accenture first and TCS second — so rejecting both is wrong.
- (d)Only 2 — This keeps TCS at No. 2 but denies Accenture the top place. Accenture headed the 2022 IT services table by a wide margin, with roughly twice TCS's brand value, so statement 1 stands.
Brand value is not the same thing as revenue, profit or market capitalisation. Brand-valuation consultancies such as Brand Finance estimate what a company's name alone is worth — essentially the royalty a business would have to pay to license its own brand — and publish annual league tables by sector. The 'IT Services 25' is the sector table for information-technology services, and it is the source behind this question. Because the tables are re-run every year, a rank is a snapshot, not a permanent attribute of the company.
This is a current-affairs recall item anchored to the exam year, so the safe reading is 'as of the 2022 edition'. Two things make it tractable without having memorised the table. First, Accenture is by some distance the largest IT services firm by revenue globally, so 'Accenture at the top' is the expected answer. Second, among Indian IT firms TCS is consistently the largest by revenue and market value, so if any Indian brand is high in a global IT services table it will be TCS. The reason the paper can ask 'No. 2' with confidence is that the gap between Accenture and TCS was large while TCS's lead over Infosys was clear. Be careful, though, not to over-generalise: the ranking is not fixed. TCS briefly overtook Accenture as the world's most valuable IT services brand in the 2020 edition before Accenture regained the lead, and the table has continued to be re-published every year since 2022, so the correct claim is 'Accenture was No. 1 in 2022', never 'Accenture has always been No. 1'.
- Brand Finance's 'IT Services 25' ranking for 2022 was published in late January 2022 and placed Accenture first with a brand value of about USD 36.2 billion.
- Tata Consultancy Services was second in the same 2022 table at about USD 16.8 billion, and Infosys third at about USD 12.8 billion, Infosys being reported as the fastest-growing brand in the ranking.
- Brand value measures the worth of the name and reputation alone — conceptually the royalty a company would pay to license its own brand — and is distinct from revenue, profit or market capitalisation.
- The ranking is re-run annually and the order does change: TCS was placed above Accenture at the top of the IT services table in the 2020 edition before Accenture returned to first place.
- TCS is part of the Tata group and is India's largest IT services company by revenue; Accenture, headquartered in Dublin, is the largest globally.
Both statements match the January 2022 edition, so the key marks (a) Both 1 and 2. The table is re-published annually — TCS held the top spot in the 2020 edition — so the ranking is a snapshot of 2022, not a permanent fact.
- Treating a ranking as permanent. The IT services table is re-run every year and the top two have swapped before; the statement is only about 2022.
- Confusing brand value with market capitalisation or revenue — a company can lead one table and not another.
- Misreading this paper's code. Here (a) is 'Both 1 and 2' and (b) is 'Only 1'; 'Only 1' is not at (a) in UPPSC 2022 Paper-I.
UPPSC asks published international rankings as direct recall pinned to the exam year — 'X is No. 1 in 2022', 'India ranks Nth' — usually in a two-statement code; UPSC very rarely asks the rank itself and prefers the concept behind the index or the agency that publishes it.
No directly related past PYQ was found.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Which organisation publishes the annual 'Global 500' and the sector-wise 'IT Services 25' rankings of the world's most valuable brands?
- (a)Brand Finance
- (b)World Economic Forum
- (c)NASSCOM
- (d)World Intellectual Property Organization
Answer(a) Brand Finance — the London-based brand-valuation consultancy that produced the 2022 IT Services 25 table used in this question.
- practice — not a real PYQ
'Brand value', as reported in international brand-valuation league tables, is best described as
- (a)the total market capitalisation of the company
- (b)the annual revenue earned from the company's flagship product
- (c)an estimate of the worth of the brand name itself, conceptually the royalty payable to license it
- (d)the book value of the company's intangible assets as shown in its balance sheet
Answer(c) an estimate of the worth of the brand name itself, conceptually the royalty payable to license it — which is why brand-value rankings differ from revenue or market-cap rankings.