The Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) has launched a novel service
for the corporate sector to help it improve its financial disclosures to
the shareholders and meet global standards on corporate governance.
Announcing this at a news conference in Mumbai, the CII president Rahul
Bajaj said the Corporate Governance Consulting Services of CII would
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help companies increase their disclosures as per global standards and
prepare globally acceptable annual reports.
Already, CII had received enquires from 10 firms of the Group A list of
companies on the Bombay Stock Exchange, Bajaj said. The companies are
seeking CII help in widening the scope of disclosure and thereby enhance
shareholder value.
"CII will also interact with stock exchanges and the Securities and
Exchange Board of India (Sebi) to design listing requirements that will
call for greater disclosures and a higher percentage of independent
directors on companies' boards," he said.
Bajaj said no company could expect to attract global capital, debt or
equity, with poor corporate governance and disclosures. According to
him. CII will work towards bringing back trust in Indian companies.
Already, CII's code of corporate governance, published in April 1998,
had been followed by companies like Infosys and Dr Reddy's Laboratories,
he said.
d still have a long residual
life," Ficci president Sudhir Jalan said. He said the argument against
import of second-hand capital goods in the past was that it could be
used to siphon precious foreign exchange out of the country against
import of what was actually scrap.