Firms fall in line after Sebi fire on 'gender bias'

Several listed companies have started appointing woman directors on their Boards following the warning given by the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi), which had set April 1 as the deadline.

At least 50 such appointments were made on Tuesday itself by companies, including big names like Tata International, Bajaj Auto, as also a host of mid-cap and small-cap firms.

Tata International said in a regulatory filing that its Board has decided to appoint Vedika Bhandarkar as a non-executive independent director with effect from Tuesday.

Bajaj Auto announced resignation of Suman Kirloskar as an independent director from close of office hours on March 31, but announced appointment of another woman member Gita Piramal to its Board.

Kirloskar has been on the Board for over 12 years. Shriram EPC Limited also announced appointment of Chandra Ramesh on its Board.

Other companies that announced appointment of woman directors included Maxwell Industries, Simplex Infra, Ceenik Exports India, Piramal Phytocare, Vyapar Industries, Shree Nath Commercial and Finance, TANFAC Industries, Shri Bajrang Alloys, Saraswati Commercial India, Banas Finance, Jaysynth Dyestuff, ABC Bearings and Tilak Finance.

Besides, companies like ABC India, Cigniti Technologies, AVI Photochem, Trident Tools, Vaswani Industries, Nikhil Adhesives, Anna Infrastructures, Parnax Lab, Triochem Products, Crestchem, Pasari Spinning Mills, Mazda Properties, PVV Infra Limited and SRM Energy announced Board meetings over the next few days for appointment of woman directors.

Most of them have already identified the persons to be appointed. Coming hard on listed firms avoiding appointment of, at least, one woman director, Sebi chairman UK Sinha last Friday said that it is very shameful that 8,000-9,000 companies are not finding even one woman competent enough to be on their Boards.

Firms that fail to meet the deadline would face strict action by Sebi and stock exchanges.