New Delhi: PSUs (Public Sector Undertakings) in India continue to disappoint with poor gender representation as eight companies listed on the NIFTY-500 index do not have even a single woman director on board, said a study on Tuesday. "Although there has been an improvement in the number of PSUs with 20 percent or more women representation on board, the share of such companies in the PSU category trails the share seen for the overall NIFTY-500 universe in 2022," said a study titled 'Corporate India: Women on boards' by proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS).
Women accounted for nearly 18 percent of the directorships in the top 500 NSE-listed companies at the end of March this year, said the study.
Of the 69 PSUs in the NIFTY-500 index, only 19 (27.5 percent) had 20 percent or more women representation on their board. "While a handful of PSUs have women as the Chairperson and Managing Director, in the aggregate, PSU need to deliver better on gender diversity as custodians of government investment in India Inc. There is an immediate need for PSUs to plug gaps in its female talent pipeline and thus ensure a diverse talent pool is
available for senior roles. Efforts need to be made through disruptive talent management initiatives in addition to the improvement already made in the form of retention, maternity benefits, safety and security at the workplace for women in PSUs," said the study.
"India also has progressed in appointing women on company boards. It has increased from 6 percent in 2014 to 17.6 percent in the Nifty-500 companies," said the study. "Although the number of women directorships is increasing, the pace of new appointments has faltered with just an aggregate one percent increase over the last three years. Based on these current rates, India will take till 2058 to achieve 30 percent gender diversity on boards," it said. At the end of March this year, the Nifty-500 companies had 4,694 directorships, out of which 827 or 17.6 percent were held by women, the study reported.
According to the study, for which IiAS partnered with the Netherlands' pension provider APG, "Europe and North America find place above the global average, with women making up 34.4 percent and 28.6 percent of company boards respectively. Country-wise, France leads the pack at 44.5 percent women representation on boards in 2021."
"On 31 March, 2022, 48.6 percent of the Nifty-500 companies had two or more women directors on their boards. This is a rise from 45 percent on 31 March, 2021 and 44 percent on 31 March, 2020," the study said. As many as 159 companies had women representation in excess of 20 percent of board composition, while this number was at 146 at the end of March 2021.
"The average age for women is 58.7 years (56 years in 2020) and that of their male colleagues is 62.3 years (61 years in 2020), showing that this age gap is slowly narrowing," the study noted.
As per the findings, women chair the boards of 22 Nifty-500 companies, while 25 women are CEOs and another 62-hold executive directorships. "In aggregate, the Nifty-500 companies have 2,960 committees, for an average of 5.9 committees for each entity, 442 (14.9 percent) of these are chaired by women and the remaining 2,518 by men," it said. Further, the study said that PSUs (public sector undertakings) continue to fare poorly on gender diversity, given that several of them do not comply with board composition norms prescribed by regulations.
Gender equality is one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) has also mandated the appointment of at least one independent woman director for the country's top 1,000-listed companies by market capitalisation.
IiAS Managing Director Amit Tandon said, "the approaching 2024 board refresh marking the end of the grandfathering of independent directors' previous tenure, provides a unique opportunity to reset the pace of change, by appointing 30 percent women on boards.
"Corporate India must take the opportunity to refresh the board and build in stronger gender diversity. For this, boards need to change their lens away from mere regulatory compliance to think about women as a share of the aggregate board size. The target must be, at the very least, 30 percent," he said.
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