The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) is reworking norms on corporate governance to evolve a modern regulatory framework, the market regulator's Executive Director Usha Narayanan said here on Wednesday.
Addressing an interactive session on regulatory overlaps organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) here, Ms. Narayanan said that corporate governance should keep up with the times in a dynamically changing scenario. “The government recognises the need for sectoral regulators to have stringent norms. We are providing inputs on the role of independent directors and emphasising that independent directors should be really independent,” she said.
SEBI and the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), Ms. Narayanan said, were collaborating to set up an inter-regulatory cell to interpret laws in a clear way and bridge the existing gaps. Alongside, the ministry and stock exchanges were also putting together early warning systems to detect companies which gather funds from capital markets and then vanish. The market regulator, she indicated, was also working on evolving a common platform for submission of annual reports and related information by listed companies which could be made accessible to other exchanges. This, she said, would expedite as well as provide a single window for sharing information.
Speaking on the occasion, Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs advisor and former director in MCA Manoj Arora said that in the present times, financial institutions have become complex and gigantic. “There is a complex maze of regulations with regulators for capital markets, banking, insurance and pensions. The new Companies Bill should address issues of regulatory overlapping,” he said.
Mr. Arora pointed out that there should be credible disclosure of all shareholders' contribution so that the end-use of IPO (initial public offering) money was fair, transparent and in the right direction.
