Abstract
India has recently witnessed several allegations of corporate governance lapses and failure. The alarming situation prompted the government and the regulators to take serious note to make the companies accountable for the allegations and to bring in regulations to contain the policy leaks. The governing body and the board of directors must abide by ethical standards, demonstrating an unwavering commitment to discipline, transparency, fairness, and accountability for their actions. This work uses a case study approach to examine various recent corporate governance failures in India. The examination is made in the following dimensions: accountability, transparency, equitability, responsibility, ethical conduct, board independence, risk management, corporate social responsibility, stakeholder engagement, and regulatory compliance. The study scrutinized various classic and recent corporate governance lapses in established corporate entities and startups and in Indian banks. The measures implemented by regulatory bodies, including the RBI, SEBI, and the MCA, were analyzed.
TopCorporate Governance In Indian Corporate Companies
The occurrence of corporate governance failure is directly attributable to the actions of the top brass of the company (Sajjad, 2023). Since the Board of Directors oversees corporate governance at the corporate level, the governance activities happen separately and parallel to the company's regular operations. The Indian model of corporate governance is slightly different from that of the Anglo-American, German, and Japanese models (Almaqtari et al., 2020; Jalwani et al., 2022; Natto & Mokoaleli-Mokoteli, 2022). Banks and financial performance are two major well-researched areas (Abhilash et al., 2023).
India has witnessed some major corporate governance failures in recent times. The list of disgraced companies includes Yes Bank, IL&FS, DHFL, Jet Airways, the ADAG group, Zee, and PTC India, amongst others. Central to the issue are two key reasons:
- 1.
Inadequate board-level supervision
- 2.
Nexus between promoters, auditors, rating agencies, and others.