CII president Rahul Bajaj said: ``A five per cent holding cannot, by itself, make UTI nominees eligible for board representation in companies. It will depend on whether the institution can muster the necessary votes for installing its nominees on the board of companies.''

The apex chamber of commerce, which has set up a committee on corporate governance under the chairmanship of Infosys chief NR Narayana Murthy, is of the opinion that having a UTI nominee on the board of directors may not achieve much in bringing about greater degree of disclosures and transparency. ``Corporate governance has become the order of the day, and all companies including institutions like UTI should strive to achieve it.

That the institution ran intoserious problems with its flagship US-64 scheme, where investors chipped in thousands of crores of their hard earned money, is a pointer to the fact that the organisation needs to step up efforts to bring about better governance,'' Bajaj said.

``My feeling is that UTI was merely trying to get a feedback from companies on corporate governance, although I do not quite agree with their request for board representation. The UTI move created a lot of debate on the issue of corporate governance, and this I feel has been a healthy development,'' Bajaj added.

CII, Bajaj said, has taken up the task of emphasising the need for corporate governance with the objective of bringing back trust in Indian companies. The apex chamber is advising member companies to achieve global standards in disclosures and transparency.