Two decades of corporate governance law

Indian corporate governance reforms have kept pace with those in advanced nations, but the quality of corporate governance, in terms of compliance, has not improved

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the first corporate governance initiative in India. In 1998, a voluntary code was devised under the aegis of the Confederation of Indian Industry. Subsequently, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) opted for a hard law and enacted the Corporate Governance Code to be complied mandatorily by listed companies. The Code has evolved over the years through various amendments. The law is now incorporated in the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, and is much more robust than the voluntary code introduced in 1998. The Companies Act, 2013, incorporated various