India’s top firms tick boxes, but lag on diversity and independence
India’s top 100 listed company has made progress in corporate governance practices, but permanent gaps in the board meeting are continuing in the independence of participation, diversity and leadership. The findings were part of a survey by Excellence Enablers, Delhi -based company EXCELENCE ENABLES, founded by M. Damodaran, former president of the Indian Stock Exchange Board.
Mint It washes the basic findings of the questionnaire.
1. More Board of Directors Meeting, not always 100% participation
Companies continued to exceed four compulsory board meetings per year. In FY25, he held more than 10 or 10 meetings than 32 of 100 companies compared to 27. This is a clear positive because it increases the wooden activity.
However, fewer companies had directors with excellent participation compared to FY22, and more companies fell to 75-99% of participation.
Mint Ola Electric President Bhavish Aggarwal reported that he missed about three quarters of the board meetings in the last financial year.
However, Ola Electric is not part of the best Nifty 100 companies.
In addition, independent managers participate in the board meetings more regularly than non -independent directors; However, some managers have zero participation every year, which reveals concerns about governance.
2. Women on the table, but barely barely
The law requires the existence of at least one female principal in the boards; However, there is no similar provision for women in leadership roles are not sufficiently represented.
As of March 31, there were only women of three companies, and only the two companies had women’s chairs that had fallen from five years and were widespread in both categories for 4 years. Since 2022, only 20 companies had one or more women as key management personnel.
3. Gray Boards
The questionnaire emphasizes the aging nature of India Inc.’s corporate leadership. The average age of the independent directors was 63.62 in the 25 financial year, which has been a relatively unchanged figure since 2022. At the same time, the youngest board member was 38 years old and the oldest member was 83.
New appointments are also distorted towards the elderly age group. The directors appointed in FY25 were 58.98 years and the average of newly appointed independent directors was 61.29 years. The findings underline the concerns that Indian boards are slow to encourage young professionals, but the induction of younger people in the boards will only “increase the relevance of the boards” and “prepare the future”.
4. Independence at risk
In the survey, 16 companies stated that they were less than the minimum independent directors envisaged in 25 financial years, 11 of them were public sector units (PSUs) and three of them are the Bank of Public Sector. In a worrying way, five PSUs had no independent director.
Mint Previously, over three quarters of India’s public sector enterprises listed, these companies reported that they are not required for the required number of independent directors because they continued to get permission from various government offices.
In addition to concerns, the company without 25 PSU and 12 PSU continued in 25th FY25 with the united roles of the president and general manager. Although there is no law that requires a separation, this regulation weakens the regulation, as it aims to report to a committee directed by a chairman.
What is the result?
Corporate India has made progress in marking the right governance boxes that managers participate and commitments where the committees are functional. However, the questionnaire clearly demonstrates that this progress is irregular. Women in leadership are an exception, the board rooms are getting older and a few PSU delay in meeting even minimum independence requirements.
