Ryabota announced that CII and IFC have entered into a ‘Cooperation Agreement' to promote good corporate governance practices in the country and in the development and implementation of initiatives towards "Independent Directors" and "Women on Board" programs.

U K Sinha released a CII Deloitte publication titled ‘Global Trends in Corporate Governance'. Talking about the report and the trends in Corporate Governance in the country, P R Ramesh, Chairman, Deloitte India acknowledged the regulatory efforts in India for the very high maturity levels of corporate governance - thanks to SEBI and developments in the Companies Act.

He stressed the need for moving away from compliance to effectiveness for the need for building a strong ecosystem of Corporate Governance. He said it is not about board structures, charters, roles of responsibilities as such as it is about ensuring that boards effectively discharge their duties.

Ramesh enumerated 11 top elements which Boards need to focus on in the coming couple of years. These include stakeholder democracy, independence, accountability, Board diversity, risk management, strategy and value-creation etc.

Mapping world developments and trends, he spoke about making independent directors truly independent by removing shackles like availability of time and conflict of interest; gender diversity; and illustrative framework for evaluation of boards.

Leo Puri, Chairman, Managing Director, UTI Asset Management Co. Ltd., earlier set the tone for the Summit. He commended SEBI's efforts while discussing how there is a need to maintain the balance between voluntary adoption of corporate governance boosted by mandatory regulations to keep with the rest of the world.
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