New Delhi: To create awareness and understand the importance of
Ethics in Governance, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India
(ICSI), in collaboration with National Institute of Securities Markets
(NISM), in its series of conferences on the subject, organized a
Conference on the theme ‘Ethics and Governance’ at Mumbai yesterday. U.
K. Sinha, Chairman, SEBI was the Chief Guest for the occasion.
S N Ananthasubramanian, President, ICSI, in his Welcome Address,
threw light on the initiatives of ICSI in
the area of corporate
governance viz. Centre for Corporate Governance, Research & Training
(CCGRT), Corporate Governance Award, Corporate Governance Assessment
Model, PMQ in Corporate Governance etc. and highlighted the transition
of Company Secretaries to Corporate Governance Professionals. Speaking
on Ethics and Governance, he pointed out the need to go beyond the
letter of law.
U. K. Sinha expressed his delight over the contents of the conference
which encompasses the academicians’, practitioners’ and regulators’
perspective on ethics and governance. He felt that mostly, corporate
governance is looked into as a letter of law rather than the spirit
behind it. In larger society, enhanced demands for social causes are
arising from unexpected people and similar demands can be expected from
corporate side. What is therefore required is comprehensive and
continuous evaluation. Consequently, higher sense of responsibility and
lack of tolerance have come into existence recently; more deterrents are
now in public domain and penalties are levied on individuals rather
than corporates. Discussing about SEBI’s initiatives in the area of
corporate governance, Shri Sinha made it clear that whatever the
regulator does, there is a need for active participation of
shareholders, directors & other stakeholders as well in this
direction. In conclusion, he assured that recommendations arising out of
such conferences would be seriously considered by SEBI and also
informed that Clause 49 of Listing Agreement is soon being brought out
as Regulations by SEBI.
The conference witnessed a galaxy of eminent speakers during 3
technical sessions viz. 1) Academic Perspective, 2) Practitioners’
Perspective and 3) Regulatory Perspective. The conference was a
confluence of thoughts between practitioners, academicians and
regulators, which identified critical governance and ethical issues in
the Indian corporate sector.