Corporate governance will continue to evolve along with the change in its driving factors from time to time, UK Sinha, former SEBI chairman, said.
Addressing the 15th Corporate Governance Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Sinha spoke of how investors are now “more assertive and demanding”, with an increased attention to issues of climate change, board effectiveness, equity, diversity and culture.
Highlighting that the ideology shift is irreversible, he referred to findings of a survey which noted how a high percentage of millennials considered themselves to be philanthropists and expressed the desire to work in companies with high societal and governance principles.
Corporate responsibility
According to him, there is also expectation that corporates need to reduce emissions in order to achieve targets by 2030.
Observing that the present Business Responsibility and Sustainability Report (BRSR) was “very quantitative” as compared to the previous Business Responsibility Report (BRR), Sinha noted that companies could expect the reporting to eventually become mandatory, leading to increased accountability.
The recent actions against auditors, signalled an increase in accountability and actions against auditors, independent directors, among other issues.