‘Health of economy will be determined by good, effective corporate leadership’

Reminding India Inc about the spirit of ‘Team India’ that plays out well in a cricket field, the government on Thursday urged promoters, directors , shareholders, key managerial persons and other stakeholders to take responsibility for their companies and pursue and uphold best corporate governance practices for greater good.

‘First line of defence’

Professionals such as chartered accounts and Company Secretaries are the first line of defence for building an accountable culture for good governance, Anurag Singh Thakur, Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs said at an Assocham virtual summit on Corporate Governance.

Thakur, who was earlier a cricket administrator, highlighted that many Boards in the current corporate landscape are very diverse and may have viewpoints that are critical rather than conventional.

‘Timely disclosure’

He also said that role of independent directors is crucial and they must always ensure no adverse decision is taken in a meeting that would be detrimental to the company or the public or self interest.

Proper disclosure, transparency regarding all material factors must be made to the regulators from time to time.

“Health of the economy will be determined by good, effective corporate leadership”, he said.

He also said that how companies respond to Covid-19 will also “determine how customers and employees will treat you as a brand”. Companies that have adopted high corporate governance standards should be comfortable in receiving audit reports.

‘It is cricket’

In a separate session, former SEBI Chairman M Damodaran said that Corporate Governance is doing “the right things at the right time for the right reasons and in a right manner. If you do that all stakeholders will stand to benefit”, he said.

Staying with the metaphor of cricket, Damodaran said that Corporate Governance in cricketing terms is “playing with a straight bat, playing within the V (of a cricket field) and not hitting across the line. If the equivalent of this happens in the corporate space, you will get good corporate governance”.