Many Cos Yet to Appoint a Woman Director on Their Boards

To ensure gender-diversity in boardrooms, two years ago the market regulator asked all listed firms to have at least one woman director on their boards from April 1, 2015

Some of India's largest public sector units, including Oil & Natural Gas Corp, GAIL (India) Ltd, Indian Oil Corp and MMTC, are among the companies that have failed to meet the requirement of at least one woman director on their boards, more than a year after the rule came into force.

About half of the 56 NSE-listed companies that have yet to meet the rule are state-owned enterprises, according to PRIME Database, a data provider on capital markets.

The deadline to meet the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) rule was March 31, 2015. “Though a bulk of the companies has met the criterion, there are some for whom it does not seem to be on top of their agenda,“ said Pranav Haldea, managing director of PRIME Database.

It is an embarrassment to the government as PSUs do not see it as a priority, said Anil Singhvi, founder director of Institutional Investor Advisory Services India (IAAS), a proxy advisory company for Institutional Investors. “It is not about just gender diversity, getting in capable woman directors brings in diversity of thought,“ he said.

As per data collated by PRIME Database, other PSUs that have yet to meet the mandate as of April 7 include National Fertilisers, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Power Finance Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, Madras Fertilisers, Rashtriya Chemicals & Fertilisers, Rural Electrification Corp and State Trading Corp of India.

To ensure gender-diversity in boardrooms, two years ago Sebi asked all listed firms to have at least one woman director on their bo ards from April 1, 2015. A significant number of companies inducted a woman member from the promoter family to comply with the rule within the deadline.

“There is sufficient number of well-qualified woman director candidates available. It must be the internal processes of these PSUs that are inhibiting them to take this forward and meet the regulations,“ said Arun Duggal, chairman of local ratings firm ICRA. It is incumbent upon PSUs to be the role models in terms of compliance and corporate governance, said Duggal, an expert on corporate governance and a mentor to independent directors. “If government-owned companies don't comply, how can the government expect others to comply?“ To an ET query, GAIL said it is under the administrative control of the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and its “directors are nominatedappointed by the Government of India.“ ONGC didn't respond to an email seeking comment until press time Sunday.

While Indian industry has been showing keenness on building a pipeline of woman leaders through rigorous mentoring programmes, it is still not yet easy for a woman to get a board position unless she is a well-known person.

Ireena Vittal, Manisha Girotra, Kalpana Morparia, Naina Lal Kidwai and Falguni Nayar are some top woman executives who are directors of multiple companies.

The Economic Times New Delhi, 18th April 2016