Stock exchanges would be "persuaded" to take action against some big companies that are not complying with Clause-49 regulations before this year ends, M Damodaran, chairman of Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), said today."Before the year is out, we will persuade exchanges that a few of the companies that are big and able to comply (with the Clause-49) but have not complied because they did not think it was important enough," the Sebi chief said, at a CII-organised workshop on `Corporate India taking Clause 49 forward'.I hope action by the stock exchanges would put pressure on managements of companies from international investors and other stakeholders to see that compliance takes over, Damodaran said.Clause-49 rules, which came into effect from January 1, 2006, seek to bring about an all-round enhancement in corporate governance standards through greater independence of board of directors, a code of conduct for board members, larger role of audit committee, enhanced disclosures, greater accountability for CEO and CFO, among other things.
