Washington, March 16 (IANS) Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) is the sole Indian company figuring in a New York City think tank's fifth annual list of the World's Most Ethical Companies.

The Ethisphere Institute's list, which includes 110 organizations, the largest since the award's inception in 2007, does not have a ranking.

Nearly 3,000 companies in more than 100 countries and 36 industries were nominated-or nominated themselves-to be considered this year.

The 110 companies that made the final cut this year include first-time recipients Adidas, eBay, Microsoft, Colgate-Palmolive and 30 other newcomers.

Thirty-one companies from last year disappeared, generally because of litigation or ethics violations, as well as increased competition from within their industries.

Twenty-six companies have been recognised as a WME company for all five years, and 50 more have made the list at least twice.

This year's list also includes more global companies, with 42 winners from outside of the US, including six from Japan.

Ethisphere's proprietary rating system, which it calls the Ethics Quotient, is based on a series of multiple-choice questions in a survey that is designed to capture a company's performance in an objective and standardised way.

"Based on the information in that survey, Ethisphere verifies responses before a final score is provided," says Alex Brigham, executive director of the Ethisphere Institute.