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Journalism of Courage
A study by Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS), a proxy advisory firm, IFC and the BSE said that there has been an improvement in governance standards of Indian companies in the last one year.
The study has found that the Sensex 30 companies have higher governance standard than other firms due to “better disclosures, more robust checks and balances”. It also said that services-focused firms and institutionally-owned and widely held companies have a better score in governance than other companies.
According to the study, more than 90 per cent of the Sensex 30 companies have “ameliorated in providing adequate disclosures and inducting more women directors”. “The number of Sensex 30 companies giving detailed minutes of the annual general meetings, disclosures on succession planning and facilitating shareholder participation doubled in the last one year. The BSE 100 companies have improved on information standards with scores ranging between 85 and 50,” the study said.
“Companies have scored over 80 per cent in each of the four scoring categories, but no one company has scored well across all categories. This shows that while there is room for improvement, a high score is achievable,” said Amit Tandon, managing director, IiAS. The study has also listed the names of 10 companies with the highest governance scores. These include Bharti Airtel, Bosch, Crompton Greaves Consumer Electricals, HDFC Bank, Hindustan Unilever, Infosys Limited, Mahindra & Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra Financial Services, Marico and Wipro. Out of these firms, HDFC Bank, Infosys and Wipro have the highest scores in governance, as per the study.
“The sharpest increase in scores from these top 10 was observed for Wipro, where the score increased due to better disclosures on the website, and in the annual report, on aspects of board evaluation, leadership experience, and succession planning,” said the report.
