This is a category of the companies that form a group to take out the entire industry profits.

Take the mining sector. This is the domain of public-sector enterprises. Two companies, Coal India and NMDC, together take away 95 per cent of the industry's profits. Given Coal India's monopoly, it is not surprising that the company takes away 65 per cent of the sector's profits.

There are really no comparable quality alternatives to Exide and Amara Raja when it comes to automotive batteries. These two together take away 90 per cent of the organised battery-market profits in the country.

There are also instances where three or four companies together take away the entire sector's profits.

In the ratings game, CRISIL, CARE and ICRA own the profits. In paints, Asian Paints, Kansai Nerolac and Berger together take away 90 per cent of the organised industry profits. In air conditioners, Voltas, Lloyd and Hitachi freeze 86 per cent of the organised-sector profits.

Of course, this study takes into account only listed companies that have public data available. Every industry has unlisted players, sometimes a significant player, like Honda in two-wheelers or Samsung or LG in domestic appliances. We have tried to make a note of such unlisted major private players wherever possible.

Phenomenally, the big four of IT industry - TCS, Infosys, Wipro and HCL Tech (excluding Cognizant) take away 84 per cent of listed company profits for the sector. This is from a list of 133 software companies under consideration.

In sanitaryware, the organised industry is dominated by three players, Kajaria, HSIL and Cera, with industry leader Kajaria cornering twice the profit share of its closest competitor.

The following table shows the main Club Profits companies.