Companies appoint woman family members as directors to meet Sebi norms

In a last-minute rush, wives, daughters and sisters have come to the rescue of listed companies to meet the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi) deadline for appointing, at least, one woman director on their Boards.

The Boards, which were dominated by fathers and sons, will have a sprinkling of female family members.

Close to 200 companies announced appointment of women directors on Monday while a similar number had their Board meetings on Tuesday to meet the April 1 deadline. At least, 60 firms had announced the appointments by early afternoon while some meetings were even scheduled for late evening hours. On Monday, some Board meetings are reported to have continued till midnight.

Nearly half of the appointments made by the companies are of family members of promoters or top executives with wives and daughters dominating the list. Other companies that have decided to appoint women directors as independent members of their Boards seem to have preferred bankers and chartered accountants.

Companies which appointed women members on their Boards as independent directors included Adani Power, Adani Ports and SEZ, Golden Tobacco, Prime Capital Market, Linc Pen and Plastics and Kohinoor Foods.

The past week saw more than 50 listed firms, including Hero Motocorp, Bajaj Auto, Tata International and a host of small and mid-cap firms, appointing woman directors on their Boards.

A few companies like United Breweries Holdings have opted for a foreign national to be appointed as a woman director.