Proxy advisory firms have acquired the status of an important corporate governance intermediary. This is not just globally, but also in India. They play a crucial role of providing voting advice to shareholders (particularly of the institutional variety). In India, the advent of the proxy advisory industry over the last year has invigorated the active participation of institutional shareholders...
RBI’s Discussion Paper on Bank Governance
Corporate governance in banks and financial institutions has captured a great deal of attention lately in India. One may attribute this to high profile episodes involving governance issues in banks such as ICICI Bank as well as Yes Bank, both involving the former chief executive officers (CEOs). There is generally a sense that universal corporate governance norms prescribed by the securities...
The Prospect of AI in the ‘Virtual’ Corporate Boardroom
[Rongeet Poddar is a 5th Year student at West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences] The Covid-19 pandemic has had a detrimental impact on businesses around the world. The crisis has forced regulators to come up with prompt responses to maintain social distancing norms in companies. The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has allowed companies to conduct virtual meetings. The Securities and...
Corporate Governance in the Age of a Pandemic
Experience from past crises suggests that companies with robust corporate governance systems and practices are able to weather a storm better than others. Similarly, it is reasonable to hypothesize that, even amid the throes of a crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic, referred to in corporate speak at an “unknown unknown” that has sparked a systemic risk, well governed companies can more optimally...
Debarment of Company Auditor: A Cursory Death Note
[Shubham Nahata is a 3rd year student of Hidayatullah National Law University] Chapter X of the Companies Act, 2013 contains provisions for regulating audit and auditors of the companies. Among other things, the chapter deals with the appointment, removal, disqualifications, and resignation of company auditors. Recently, the Bombay High Court in N. Sampath Ganesh v. Union of India dealt with the...
MCA Allows EGMs to be Conducted Virtually
[Aditi Nagpal is a 4th year BALLB student at Jindal Global Law School] The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) released a clarification through its General Circular 14/2020 dated 8 April 2020 which allows for extraordinary general meetings (EGMs) of companies to be conducted virtually. The Circular provides a welcome relief in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, and follows naturally in line...
Extraterritorial Compliance with Corporate Governance Norms
[Shubham Gupta is a 4th law student at Institute of Law, Nirma University, Ahmedabad] The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has elucidated its position with the respect to the extra-territorial application of its corporate governance norms. In a recent informal guidance in the matter of KCP Limited, SEBI interpreted regulation 24(1) of the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure...
Paper on Shareholder Stewardship in India
I have uploaded on SSRN a paper titled “Shareholder Stewardship in India: The Desiderata”, whose abstract is as follows: The goal of this paper is to examine whether the stewardship code, which emanated in circumstances that are specific to the United Kingdom (UK), is capable of transposition to other jurisdictions that experience different corporate structures as well as legal and institutional...
‘Apply and Explain’ – An Alternative Model of Corporate Governance
[Manasvin Andra is a III year student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad] Corporate governance has emerged as one of India Inc.’s primary concerns since the time the Satyam scandal came to light. The incident – dubbed “India’s Enron” – has had a seismic effect on how businesses are regulated, and its effects have been felt most prominently in terms of how corporate governance norms are...
SEBI’s Stewardship Code for Institutional Investors
[Pammy Jaiswal is a Partner at Vinod Kothari and Company] The activism of institutional investors was experienced for the very first time in Life Insurance Corporation v. Escorts Ltd., 1986 AIR 1370. While the Bombay High Court initially held that the role of the Life Insurance Corporation (LIC) is unconstitutional and mala fide, the Supreme Court allowed the LIC’s appeal and specifically stated...
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