Extending the board's reach

The governance of group companies will increasingly be an area of focus for the Sebi

At the time of its collapse, the Infrastructure Leasing and Financial Services (IL&FS) group operated through 347 entities. Some were wholly-owned subsidiaries, a few were joint ventures (with state governments or foreign partners); it had a few associate companies and quite a few special purpose vehicles. A few of these entities were direct subsidiaries, but many others were up to four levels below the parent company. Sixty per cent of these were operating in India with the remaining 40 per cent domiciled offshore. IL&FS’ precipitous fall, may simplistically but speciously (...and I will say why), be explained by reciting Sir