A Seat At The Table

Nearly a decade since it was mandated that India Inc. open its boardrooms to women, they have got their foot in the door. But there is still plenty of room to create a healthy gender balance in letter and spirit

- VIDYA S. AND ASHISH RUKHAIYAR

SEVERAL YEARS AGO, corporate veteran Arun Duggal was part of a board discussion to consider firing an otherwise thoroughly professional company secretary who had made a grave error. While the board was focussed on the severity of the mistake, Duggal recalls its only woman director pointing out: How can you punish a person for making an honest mistake that any one of us could have made? "She went a step further and said, 'Have you considered how terrible he must be feeling? We should tell him it was a mistake that embarrassed us. But it happens, so let us move on'," says the Chairman of ratings agency ICRA, who is a former CEO of Bank of America, India.

Duggal who co-founded industry body Ficci's Women on Corporate Boards programme with Avaana Capital's Founding Partner Anjali Bansal to identify and mentor high-potential women for board positions through one-on-one mentorships-says the discussions are always richer when women are on the board. Mark Mobius, the guru of emerging market investing, agrees. "I don't care what the sector is; it is good to have a woman on the board. More than that, maybe the chairperson as a woman... I really think that women directors are very important to a company," he says. "The decisions are more balanced. There is more empathy in difficult situations," adds Duggal, as he lists out more than half a dozen traits that make women valuable additions to the board.