Spencer Stuart: India Board Index 2014

The 2014 edition of the Spencer Stuart India Board Index examines the state of corporate governance in the BSE 100 companies. Spencer Stuart finds that India has made great strides to improve corporate governance, but findings reveal several areas that have remained unchanged.

Among the findings:

• The government still has not achieved 100% compliance with Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement, nearly a decade after the law outlining management structure was adopted.
• Foreign representation on boards is deemed critical to global expansion efforts, but the ratio of companies with at least one director from outside India has remained steady for the last four years, at roughly one in three.
• Gender diversity continues to be a significant point of discussion. In 2014, 64% of companies had at least one female director. Meaning the proportion of female directors on Indian boards is only 8%.
• The average compensation for independent directors has tripled in five years, possibly due to a limited pool of talented director candidates.
• Less than half of all companies surveyed have a fully independent audit or remuneration committee.

The full report is published on Spencer Stuart’s website. Read the full report.