32 PSUs fail to comply with Sebi's woman director norm

As many as 32 public sector firms, including Gail, ONGC, NTPC, SAIL and Punjab National Bank (PNB) have failed to comply with the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) norms to appoint, at least, one woman director on their respective Boards.

Bharat Electronics, Bharat Petroleum Corporation, Container Corporation of India, Power Finance Corporation, Rural Electrification Corporation, are among other public sector units (PSUs) that have been non-compliant with the Sebi directive, Prime Database said on Monday.

Going by information gathered by Prime Database, a total of 180 NSE-listed companies have not appointed a woman director on their respective boards within the due date.

These include as many as 32 PSUs and public sector banks.

"As many as 180 out of a total relevant 1,456 NSE-listed companies, or nearly 12 per cent of the companies, had still not appointed a woman director", Prime Database managing director Pranav Haldea said.

All listed firms were required to have, at least, one woman director on their Boards from April 1, as per a new Sebi directive as also under the Companies Act, 2013.

As on April 1, about 832 women have been appointed to 912 directorship positions in 872 companies.

Of these 872 companies, 43 companies already had a woman on their Boards before the Sebi guideline was announced but appointed a second woman director.

Of the remaining 829 firms which complied with the Sebi norms, as many as 278 did so in the month of March.

Data further showed that across all the 1,456 NSE-listed firms, after the recent appointments of women, there are now 1,222 women occupying 1,431 directorship positions.

The companies with the highest number of women directors (four each) are Apollo Hospitals Enterprise, Indraprastha Medical and Monte Carlo Fashions.