Relics in Boardrooms? ; has the Debate On the Role of Independent Directors Begun to Echo in Company Boardrooms or Is There a Case for Scrapping the Idea of Them As Protectors of Minority Shareholders?

Summary

---

As the fourth quarter results keep coming in and the annual general meetings (AGMs) follow in the coming months, the question of what role should an independent director (ID) play in the conduct of the meetings remains alive what with the perception having gained ground in the wake of the Satyam fraud that IDs did not do their jobs properly.

The key question then is: Have things changed in the boardrooms? Companies are certainly waiting a few days extra to put out the audited results. But has the relationship between the management and the IDs changed? 'Absolutely not,' says Deepak Satwalekar, former MD of HDFC Standard Life and now independent director on the boards of six companies including Infosys and Tata Power. 'But then my views may be biased, because I am as independent as I want to be.' The point here is that the companies in which the IDs get the freedom to work independently are the ones which are, in any case, well- governed.

See the full content of this document

Extract

---

Relics in Boardrooms? ; has the Debate On the Role of Independent Directors Begun to Echo in Company Boardrooms or Is There a Case for Scrapping the Idea of Them As Protectors of Minority Shareholders?

However, well-functioning boards are more the exception than the norm, as the spate of resignations by IDs in the wake of the Satyam episode as also the Nimesh Kampani case go to show. But should IDs take all the blame? Former cabi...

See the full content of this document

---