As debts mount in the west and India and China begin molding their economies into stable, stronger strategic powerhouses, they reflect a majority of the companies represented in the Forbes Asia’s Fab 50 Companies List for the year 2011.

For the first time since the list began in 2005  nearly half – 23 companies – came from China. Although both China and India tied for  16 places in 2010, this year India secured only seven spots in the Fab 50. A sign of the region’s dynamism, India’s Infosys is missing on the list, while China’s Qingdao Haier, the world’s No. 1 white goods brand, made its first appearance.

In terms of industry, technology companies once again dominated the list this year with 8 representatives, down from 11 last year.  The consumer durables industry has the second most representatives with 7 companies followed by food companies with 6 members.  For the second year in a row the Fab 50 list, didn’t have any representative from the oil/gas industry.

The Indian companies that did make it include Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, HCL Technologies, ITC, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, and Tata Consultancy Services. Major Chinese companies that reigned this year include – Agile Property holdings, Anhui Conch Cement, Belle International Holdings, Changsha Zoomlion Heavy Industry Holdings, China Mingniu Dairy, China Merchants Bank etc. For the full list please visit – Forbes Asia’s Fab 50 Companies List for the year 2011.

So how does Forbes pick these companies?

Starting with 1,073 companies that recorded at least US$3 billion in revenue or market capitalization, the team then analyzed each company’s five-year track record for revenue, operating earnings, return on capital, recent results, share-price movements, and finally outlook.

Companies that had too much debt, or which were more than 50 percent government-owned, were tossed out of the list.