Driving diversity through governance

Indian companies must move beyond mere compliance to genuine inclusion and skill development, said leaders at the Mint CEO roundtable

- Staff Writer

Achieving diversity without leveraging corporate governance and the board's expertise is not feasible, even as there has been some improvement in the diversity of our workforce and senior management. But there is admittedly a long way to go.

To delve deeper into the link between corporate governance and DEI (diversity, equality, and inclusivity) in Indian companies, Mint in association with JSA Advocates & Solicitors organized the concluding roundtable discussion as part of the series titled Realizing India's Economic Dividend: Distribution of opportunity.

Bringing up gender parity and pay parity on boards, U.K. Sinha, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Board of India, said that achieving gender parity on boards would remain a distant goal until a robust pipeline of women leaders was developed. JSA's Rupinder Malik also observed that while companies follow the compliance bit, very few organizations ensure the effectiveness of their implementation.

One of the key points made by the experts was that companies need to have the right mindset to realize the potential of diverse boards and understand that innovation is only possible through diverse ideas.