India Inc racing for woman directors

Didi, Bibi, Beti syndrome

Wives & daughters join fathers & sons to meet Sebi deadline

Sebi has a woman member too on its board

Mumbai (PTI): As it pushes listed companies to appoint women directors, a female member already sits on the board of the capital markets regulator Sebi.While there is no regulatory requirement for Sebi in this regard, its board recently got a woman member when Anjuly Chib Duggal replaced Naved Masood as a nominee of the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

Besides Chairman and three Whole Time Members, the eight-member board has nominees of Finance Ministry and RBI and a part-time independent member. Duggal is probably the first woman to be in the Sebi board in many years. She took over as Corporate Affairs Secretary this month and also attended Sebi's board meeting for the first time on March 22.

90% listed cos on NSE comply with Sebi norm

Mumbai (PTI): Nearly 90 per cent of the companies listed on the National Stock Exchange are believed to have complied with market regulator Sebi's norm of having at least one woman director on their boards.

The number is expected to increase further as many companies have scheduled their board meeting till late night to meet the deadline of April 1. To fall in line with Sebi's requirement, many firms are appointing same women executives to several boards, while others are naming wives, daughters, mothers and sisters of the promoters on their boards, say industry observers.

Mumbai (PTI): In a last-minute rush, wives and daughters have come to the rescue of the listed companies to ensure compliance with a new norm for having at least one woman director on their boards that have been so far dominated by fathers and sons.While most of the new women directors are family members of the promoters or top executives, some companies have replaced their independent directors with their female family members, mainly wives, daughters or sisters.

To ensure gender-diversity in boardrooms, capital markets regulator Sebi has asked all listed firms to have at least one woman director on their respective boards tomorrow onwards.To ensure compliance, nearly 200 companies announced appointments of women directors on Monday, while a similar number of companies had their board meetings on Tuesday to meet the deadline.

At least 60 firms had announced the appointments by early afternoon, while some meetings were even scheduled for late evening hours.On Monday, some meetings had continued till midnight.However, nearly about half of the appointments made by the companies are the persons from within the families of the promoters or top executives, while wives and daughters of top executives dominate the list.

The companies that have decided to appoint women directors as independent members of their boards seem to have preferred bankers and chartered accountants, shows an analysis of the announcements made by listed firms in last few days.A few companies, such as United Breweries Holdings Ltd, have opted for a foreign national to be appointed as a woman director, while many of them have decided to promote senior management personnel to the board.

Some companies have, however, expressed their inability to meet the deadline, while citing reasons ranging from a sudden exit of an existing women directors to 'lack of quorum' in their board meetings to make an appointment. Sebi has warned of strict penal action against the firms that fail to comply, while Chairman U K Sinha recently said it was "really shameful" that many companies were not being able to appoint even one woman director.

It was this warning earlier this month that actually started the late rush to meet the deadline. Initially, Sebi had asked the companies to comply before October 1, 2014, but later extended it to April 1.The companies which appointed women members on their boards as independent directors included Adani Power, Adani Ports and SEZ, Golden Tobacco, Prime Capital Market, Linc Pen and Plastics and Kohinoor Foods.