Has India Inc improved on the corporate governance front? Yes, if one goes by the number of resolutions that were rejected by sizeable institutional investors.

According to a study by Prime Database, the number of resolutions this year (till October 14) where more than 20 per cent of institutional shareholders voted against stood at 619. The corresponding figures for 2015 and 2014 were 717 and 975.

"This reflects an improvement in the quality of resolutions being proposed at shareholder events. There has also been an increase in the participation of institutional investors, which is on account of the facility of e-voting being made mandatory a couple of years back," the Prime Database Managing Director, Pranav Haldea, said.

However, of the 619 resolutions rejected by the institutional investors, 609 got passed, due to high promoter holding. Most such resolutions were related to board appointments followed by auditor appointments and stock options, Prime Database said.

However, there were 30 resolutions which were completely voted against by shareholders at AGMs/EGMs/postal ballots and court convened meetings held this year. The figure for the same period in 2015 stood at 23 while 27 resolutions were rejected in 2014.

Specific resolutions, where more than 20 per cent of institutional shareholders cast a negative vote, for companies belonging to Nifty 50 were 36, as compared to 62 in same period last year.

Among them, Zee Entertainment had saw the highest number of rejection by institutional investors on percentage term at 77.17 per cent (for re-appointment of Dr Subhash Chandra as a director of the company) followed by BPCL 64.97 per cent (for appointment of Anant Kumar Singh as Government Nominee Director) and again BPCL by 59.44 per cent (for the appoint of a director in place of Shrikant Prakash Gathoo, Director, who retires by rotation and being eligible, offers himself for re-appointment).

Forty domestic mutual funds, as a whole, voted in favour in 88 per cent of the cases and against in 3 per cent of the cases; they had abstained in 9 per cent cases.

The analysis is based on 2,113 annual general meetings (AGMs), EGMs, Postal Ballots and Court Convened Meetings held by 1,542 NSE listed companies since January 2016.

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