Department of Public Enterprises (DPE), an organizing body of government of India confers status of Navratna to some state owned companies, Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSE). As of today there are 18 Navratna companies. The selection criterion is based on financials like net worth, revenues, net profits, etc. To be specific, there are six parameters to be evaluated by DPE when assigning Navratna title to a company. Each company is benchmarked on
(1) ratio of employee cost to the production cost,
(2) ratio of net profit to net worth,
(3) ratio of PBDIT to revenues,
(4) ratio of PBDIT to capital employed,
(5) EPS, and
(6) relative performance in its sector
Below is the performance of 18 Navratna companies in the FY08.
Figures in billion rupees
| Block Assets | Sales | Net Profit |
| ONGC | 1232.2 | 598.5 | 167.0 |
| IOCL | 568.3 | 2467.6 | 71.9 |
| NTPC | 533.7 | 370.9 | 74.2 |
| Power Grid | 354.2 | 46.1 | 16.0 |
| SAIL | 309.2 | 397.7 | 73.0 |
| BPCL | 215.0 | 1102.1 | 15.5 |
| HPCL | 195.7 | 1052.2 | 12.7 |
| GAIL | 169.6 | 180.1 | 26.1 |
| MTNL | 158.4 | 47.2 | 6.1 |
| NALCO | 91.4 | 50.2 | 16.3 |
| SCI | 67.4 | 37.3 | 8.1 |
| HAL | 52.1 | 86.2 | 16.3 |
| BHEL | 44.4 | 194.9 | 28.6 |
| Bharat Electronics | 14.3 | 40.6 | 8.1 |
| NMDC | 14.2 | 57.1 | 32.5 |
| PFC | 3.7 | 50.6 | 12.1 |
| Coal India | 3.5 | 2.7 | 17.1 |
| REC | 0.8 | 35.4 | 8.6 |
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| Composite | 4,028 | 6,817 | 610 |
Acronym expanded:
| BHEL | Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited |
| BPCL | Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited |
| GAIL | (erstwhile) Gas Authority of India Ltd |
| HAL | Hindustan Aeronautics Limited |
| HPCL | Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited |
| IOCL | Indian Oil Corporation Limited |
| MTNL | Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited |
| NALCO | National Aluminium Company Limited |
| NMDC | National Mineral Development Corporation Ltd. |
| NTPC | National Thermal Power Corporation Ltd |
| ONGC | Oil & Natural Gas Corporation Limited |
| PFC | Power Finance Corporation Limited |
| REC | Rural Electrification Corporation Limited |
| SCI | Shipping Corporation of India Limited |
| SAIL | Steel Authority of India Limited |

ONGC is the biggest in terms of assets and profits whereas IOCL has the highest turnover.
Navratna status comes with a great degree for these state run firms. Also, its government endeavour to support these Navratnas to grow up to global giant.