Importance of Proxy Advisory Firms in Indian Capital Markets
Shriram Subramanian, the Founder and MD of InGovern Research Services, in a recent interview with “Report Insights” highlighted the importance of proxy advisory firms in Indian capital markets. The extracts of the interview can be read in InGovern’s monthly publication: Governance Watch – December 2012 Newsletter
Special Report: India Proxy Season 2012 Analysis
InGovern released its special report: India Proxy Season 2012 Analysis in November 2012. This report analyzes patterns in the resolutions proposed by Indian listed companies in the just concluded 2012 proxy voting season as well as the corporate governance structure and practices prevalent in top 100 companies forming part of the Nifty and Junior Nifty indices.
Key Highlights of the Report:
- 10% of companies have board sizes of either more than 16 directors or less than 7 directors
- 9% of companies were non compliant with Clause 49; with less than 50% IDs, with no Independent Chairman
- One in five Directors attend less than 75% of Board Meetings
- 9% of IDs have outside directorships in >10 public companies
- 22% of IDs have served on the Board for > 9 years
- Audit Committees of only 45 companies comprise only of IDs
- 13 companies have not constituted a remuneration committee
- 53 companies have had the same Auditors for > 5 years
Full report can be downloaded from: India Proxy Season 2012 Analysis
InGovern Vote Recommendations:
The list of vote recommendations published in November 2012 is available in our monthly publication: Governance Watch – December 2012 Newsletter. To subscribe to InGovern reports, email info@ingovern.com. The newsletter is very informative.
Book Summary: Wisdom of Ants
As the fable goes, in the summer when the ants were busy gathering food, grasshoppers lived a carefree life. Come winter, the ants lived off their store, while the grasshoppers were left starving. It appears that this lesson was eventually learnt by humans, who shifted from hunting and gathering to agriculture. The wisdom of ants that they borrowed did not end here but helped to lay the foundation of economics as a distinct discipline. This book takes the reader through the history of economics through the ages and the four major world civilisations: European, Islamic, Indian and Chinese, pointing out the ways in which we think of economics today were formed. In the process, Shankar Jaganathan asks us to question our ideas of the importance of these ideas and their ability to drive the world. Written in a lucid, easy style,with many historical examples, The Wisdom of Ants views economic ideas through an ethical, social and political lens, allowing readers to understand the relevance of this history to their own daily lives.
Shankar Jaganathan, advisor to InGovern Research Services released his book: Wisdom of Ants – A Short History of Economics in November 2012. It traces the origin and evolution of economic ideas to their current state, and includes:
- Economic ideas in the East prior to Adam Smith?
- How Economics slipped from the ethical grasp?
- What triggered Capitalism? Is there any viable alternative?
- How the Nobel Laureates shaped the subject?
It concludes by examining the 3 major 21st century challenges – Income and wealth inequality, implications of self-centredness and the growth fetish reflected in GDP measure.
Best wishes to InGovern in 2013 and beyond. Check with them for vote recommendations, corporate governance scorecards, corporate governance consulting and education services, risk monitoring services and compensation analysis.
Stakeholders Empowerment Services, a not for profit Indian proxy advisor, recently produced a helpful analysis of the Companies Bill, 2012 passed by the Lok Sabha on December 18, 2012. The bill seeks to have 1/3 of directors be independent, defines independence, proposes directors be limited to two 5 year terms, proposes all companies have at least one woman on their board, limits total directorships for each board member to 20, proposes nomination and remuneration committees, proposes limiting auditors to ten year terms and that they be limited by not performing non-audit functions as the companies they audit.
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