Number of companies without a single independent director on the rise again

Seventeen listed companies are without a single independent director on board.

An analysis of data from nseinfobase.com, a website tracking corporate data, shows that this marks a rising trend in recent years, after a sharp decline in the financial year ending March 2016 (FY16).

Several of these companies have gone bankrupt and are under the resolution process. Ownership issues are also among the reasons for companies not having independent directors, according to industry watchers.

Amit Tandon, founder, and managing director at Institutional Investor Advisory Services India (IiAS,) said that companies including recent cases such as those in the airline sector would have seen