Gearing up of Governance with Gender diversity

Abstract

Gender diversity is a way of creating diversity without necessarily Increasing board size and is in vogue across the globe as an avenue. Regulatory intervention undertaken by regulators is the need of the day as India Inc is yet to display its maturity to improve upon its governance structure. Governance, Regulation and Gender Diversity has been hitting the headlines in India with the new Companies Act 2013 and SEBI guidelines requiring having at least one Woman Director on the Boards of Companies by April 1, 2015. Ensuring gender diversity in board through regulatory route or quota route is new intervention for India Inc. to demonstrate compliance in letter and spirit of the legislation. The cardinal intention of the intervention is to align India Inc to demonstrate sensitivity towards diversity and also improve upon their governance structure. This article reflects upon different dimensions and perspective of corporate governance in relation to the gender diversity in boards and also deliberates on whether a quota for ensuring gender diversity in board room synchronizes with the performance aspect of the firm and whether regulatory imposition is the desirable option. Some implementable propositions are also included in this article regarding repository which essentially needs to be dove-tailed with such legislative intervention.