Mumbai: Nearly half of the NSE-listed companies are yet to appoint a woman director on their board even as the October 1 deadline for compliance with SEBI's requirement in this regard is only a month away.
As many as 755 out of a total 1,469 NSE-listed companies, or 51 percent of the companies, were still to appoint a woman director as on August 31, 2014, which means a required rate of 25 appointments per day for the next one month, indianboards.Com, a joint initiative of PRIME Database and NSE, said here.
"In the six-and-a-half months since the SEBI board meeting on February 13 when this stipulation was announced, till August 31, 264 women have been appointed to 274 directorship positions in 264 companies, PRIME Database Managing Director Pranav Haldea said in a statement here.
Of these 264 companies, 20 already had a woman on the board before the SEBI guidelines was announced (and appointed a second woman director on their board), implying that 244 companies have since complied with the requirement, he said.
In these 244 companies, 242 women have been appointed to 251 directorship positions. Significantly, at least 45 of these 251 directorship positions or nearly one-fifth (list given below), have been filled by appointing women belonging to the promoter group.
These women shall have the same voice as the promoter, defeating the very purpose of genuine (independent) gender diversity, he said.
Furthermore, another 69 of the 251 positions are non-independent, thus leaving only 137 positions which are apparently independent, he added.
As per Haldea, 220 of the 242 women appointed in these 244 companies are first time appointees to the board of a listed company.
However, of these 220 women, 42 (holding 44 directorship positions) are from the promoter group and a further 65 women (holding 65 directorship positions) are non-independent, thus leaving only 113 women who are holding 114 directorship positions and are apparently independent.
As per indianboards.Com, across all 1,469 NSE-listed companies, even after the recent appointments of women, there are still just 696 women presently occupying 830 directorship positions, which is just 7.1 percent.
Of these, while 428 women are holding 463 non-independent directorship positions, only 290 women are collectively occupying 367 independent directorship positions and 22 hold both independent as well as non-independent positions.
Thus, if the requirement was for boards to have independent women directors, as many as 1,121 companies or 76 percent of companies would have been needed to meet the norm.
Among women directors, Renu Sud Karnad has the maximum number of board positions at 8, of which 5 are as an independent director, followed by Ireena Gopal Vittal and Ramni Nirula at 6, all of which are as an independent director.
Only 34 companies have woman chairperson/co-chairperson, of which only 1 is an independent director.
Apollo Hospitals Enterprise has the highest number of women directors numbering four though none are independent.
On an aggregate basis, there are a total of 9,121 persons occupying a total of 11,605 directorships in NSE-listed companies.
