With the last minute rush to meet the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) directive that companies need to have at least one woman on their board by April 1, 2015, all that we have is the extended Indian family on the board. India Inc has made a mockery of the norms, using jugaad to comply to the norms by appointing wives, daughters and mothers on the boards of companies. Yet, 189 of the 1,457 listed firms on the NSE could not find a woman director till the end of the deadline.
Though meaning to bring in women professionals on the boards of listed Indian companies, Sebi did not specify any age, qualification and experience norms for women directors. Thus, given the present arrangement, most decisions could be taken at home rather than within the confines of the boardroom. Getting women on board is happening globally. In Japan, just 3% of the board are women, it is 19% in the US and 36% in Norway. Germany has just passed a law that women need to occupy 30% of the board in public companies. There are advantages to have women on the board. According to a new study in the Journal of Risk and Financial Management, a board with more women directors is likely to seek the help of leading financial advisers to assess the price at which to sell a company. Now that India has made some sort of beginning, the law should be tightened over the next few years so that companies need to have women professionals, not just family members on board. Instead of mandating quotas, companies across the world need to appoint women directors on their own merit. That would be true empowerment.
