Boards, Regulators and Governance Understanding corporate governance in India and moving towards valid constructs of measurement

Abstract

In recent years scholars, industry practitioners and regulators have dedicated considerable attention to the topic and study of Corporate governance. With a combination of incidents in recent history and of high profile debacles, such as the implosion of Lehman Brothers Holdings, America's fourth-largest investment bank that precipitated or contributed to a degree in the financial crisis almost a decade back, press, legislators and academia have found reason to intensify interest in understanding, redefining and solidifying corporate governance practices to avoid such occurrences in the future. A considerable attention is also being paid to the development of measurement tools for measuring corporate governance and assess best practices in the domain by firms. This thesis is aimed at understanding the global corporate governance paradigm, its measurement by state and private agencies in terms of development of corporate governance indices and understanding the response of India to the question of corporate governance. It also makes an attempt to devise a workable corporate governance measurement index for India keeping the country specific market and regulatory factors as consideration. It further leaves scope for the expansion of research by creating the continuously evolving index with the possibility of addition of newer and more market-relevant and contemporary attributes.