About 100 persons will have to resign from 283 independent directorship positions held in NSE-listed companies by October 1 to comply with new rules, as per statistics compiled by indianboards.com, a joint initiative of Prime Database and the NSE.
About 17% or 247 NSE-listed companies are non-compliant with the corporate governance norms recently announced by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi).
The number is even higher at 22% (319 companies) based on Sebi’s norms of not considering nominee directors as independent directors.
With 14 positions, Pradip Kumar Khaitan holds the maximum number of directorship, followed by Anil Harish, Dilip Jayantilal Thakkar, and Ranjendra Ambalal Shah ? all with 13 independent directorship positions.
The new rules stipulate a person to serve as independent director on the boards of a maximum seven listed companies and a maximum of three listed companies in case the person is serving as a whole-time director in a listed company.
Currently, nominee directors are being considered independent in as many as 382 cases in 227 companies. In 104 of these companies, conversion from independent to non-independent shall make the company non-compliant with Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement to the Indian stock exchange.
?Limits on the maximum number of directorships, tenure and nominee directors will have a significant impact… Independent directors would now be able to spend more time on a company,? said Pranav Haldea, MD, Prime Database.
Haldea added that Sebi has dictated that a person will be eligible for appointment for only one more term of five years as against the new Companies Act that has mandated independent directorship for more than two successive terms of five years each on a prospective basis. ?This is a welcome move.?
According to indianboards.com, 1,287 of a total of 6,050 independent directorship positions (21%) in 660 NSE-listed companies have already crossed tenure of 10 years as on February 21.
