In response to a growing need to understand the state of Indian Boards, the Indian School of Business (ISB) Executive Education has released the India Corporate Governance Scorecard - 2024, today, February 12, Monday.
Conducted by Sanjay Kallapur, Professor, ISB; Nirmalya Kumar, Professor, SMU, and Harish Raichandani (adjunct faculty), ISB, the empirical report, based on a survey of directors from Indian companies, offers insights into the prevailing practices and challenges in corporate governance.
The study evaluated corporate governance in nine areas across three dimensions: Guidance and Oversight, Board Functioning, and Leadership. The responding directors provided perspectives on boards of different types of companies, namely, professionally managed companies, promoter/family-owned, multinational corporations, Indian conglomerates, and Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
A few of the highlights from their findings include:
- The scorecard reveals the varying degrees of satisfaction (percentage of directors responding “satisfied” or “highly satisfied”) across three dimensions: Board Leadership – 82%, Board Functioning – 73%, and Guidance & Oversight – 71%
- Directors demonstrate strong board effectiveness, marked by leadership acumen, a vibrant culture of collaboration, effective Board-CEO engagement, and commitment to their roles
- Directors exhibit a dichotomy in risk oversight, with high confidence in regulatory compliance at 95%, yet mixed vigilance over obsolescence and technology risks at 68% and 72%, respectively
- Strategic oversight emerges as a critical area for improvement, with only 68% satisfaction, indicating a potential blind spot in Indian boardrooms' competencie