And for a Friday returning from Mumbai, after conclaves on Corporate Governance and ESG, some thoughts.…. some musings…..
BCCI ( Bombay Chamber of Commerce & Industry ) is the oldest and one of the most respected industry chambers, led by some of the country’s top most corporate chiefs from Indian and foreign MNCs and MSMEs. Theme: Better Governance – Sustained Profitability. Important topics of Good Governance as a differentiator, role of Independent Directors, Audit Committee expectations, making Boards future ready with increased formalisation of the Indian economy thanks to various Reforms undertaken over the last four decades. Indian Private sector is slowly but surely moving away from the total cudgels of the socialist era of licenses, controls and Public Sector dominance. But this change has to be matched by equally responsible behaviour by Private capital, to ensure India reaches its Goal of a 5 Trillion $ economy, the fastest, the minimum level needed to stand up to economic might of China.
Thanks to my friend Manoj Sonawala, who in cooperation with Bombay Stock Exchange has initiated many measures to improve public awareness of National and Global concerns. ESG is an imperative dictated by the Sustainable Development Goals, to ensure the disasters of climate change is mitigated and the World remains safe for our future generations. Very stiff targets for India to be achieved by 2030 – Non fossil fuel energy of 500GW; 0% Energy requirements by renewable energy sources, CO2 emissions only upto 1 mn tonnes etc. etc. Large corporates are getting mandated to publish their contribution towards measures to protect the Environment, ensuring equitable society and improving governance commencing from board composition to the systems and procedures in achieving returns not just for shareholders, but all STAKEHOLDERS, which is a much larger and very ominous responsibility, but must be discharged.
In these globally challenging times, India with a 8.6% GDP growth is the best among the larger economies of the world. It only further raises our challenge to perform, the competitive way, the equitable way, the SEEGOS way.