ISB Holds a Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets

ISB Holds a Conference on Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets

Hyderabad, August 12, 2006: The Centre for Analytical Finance (CAF) at the ISB hosted a conference on "Corporate Governance in Emerging Markets" today. The conference brought together on a single platform the leading academicians, practitioners and policy-makers who discussed and debated the topic.

The keynote address was delivered by M. Damodaran, Chairman, SEBI. "Regulation is not the easiest of tasks when you have to regulate a wide variety of institutions that either cause gain or loss to themselves, or the system," he said, while speaking about his official role as the Chairman of SEBI. He said that while the Cadbury Report was the beginning of Corporate Governance in the developed countries, in India, it was Mahatma Gandhi who captured the essence of the concept as "the end does not justify the means". Damodaran went on to say that despite the criticism and debate Clause 49 has drawn from all quarters, the fact remains that "Clause 49 was not conjured out of a hat. It was driven by the efforts of Kumaramangalam Birla and Narayanan, amongst others."

M. Damodaran, Chairman, SEBI, delivering the Keynote Address at the ISB

Damodaran said that he was "gladdened" by a newspaper report that said that 85% of corporates in India had reached corporate governance standards. In a lighter vein, he said, "I checked to make sure if the figure was 8.5% or 85%, and thought if this was true then we are nearly there!" Damodaran said that there ought to be a system of evaluating the person on the Board, considering the fact that there were people on the Board who were serving for more than 10-12 years. "For that length of time, even the best of men and women need to get out, breathe some fresh air, and get back in to bring a fresh set value addition," he said.

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Contributed by -
Ms. Bhuvana Ramalingam,
Director - Communications,
Indian School of Business, Hyderabad.

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