Market regulator SEBI has set up a committee under the Chairmanship of Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak Mahindra Bank to help improve the standards of corporate governance of listed companies in India.
Besides Kotak, the panel comprises of 20 members including representatives of Corporate India, stock exchanges, professional bodies, investor groups, chambers of commerce, law firms, academicians and research professionals.
In the past, SEBI had set up committees on corporate governance under the Chairmanship of N.R. Narayanamurthy and Kumaramangalam Birla.
In the latest move, the Kotak-led Panel has been tasked to among other things make recommendations for "ensuring independence in spirit of independent directors and their active participation in functioning of the company".
Independence of independent directors is among the weakest links of listed companies in India. Despite efforts in the past two decades, this aspect has still not been squarely addressed by regulator and policy makers, say Corporate India observers.
The other terms of reference for this Panel include improving safeguards and disclosures pertaining to Related Party Transactions.
The Panel has been tasked to go into issues in accounting and auditing practices by listed companies.
The other areas include improving effectiveness of Board Evaluation practices; addressing issues faced by investors on voting and participation in general meetings; and disclosure and transparency related issues.
SEBI has advised this Panel to "endeavour" to submit its report within a period of four months.
Some of the high profile members of India Inc forming part of the Panel are Keki Mistry, Vice Chairman & CEO of HDFC Limited; Rishad Premji, Chief Strategic Officer and Member of the Board, Wipro Ltd and R Shankar Raman, Wholetime Director and CFO, L&T.
Ashish Chauhan, CEO, BSE and J Ravichandran, Acting CEO, NSE are also members of the Panel.
Apex industry associations Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and FICCI are represented by their Presidents Shobhana Kamineni and Pankaj R Patel respectively.
From the professional institutes front, Nilesh Vikamsey, President, CA Institute and Shyam Agrawal, President, Company Secretaries Institute form part of the Panel.
N Venkatram, Managing Director & CEO, Deloitte and Arun Kumar, Chairman & CEO, KPMG are also part of this committee.