11 April 2025 – Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) released the ninth edition of its assessment of the BSE 100 index constituents on the Indian Corporate Governance Scorecard (scorecard). The theme for this year’s report is Committing to Stakeholders

The current scorecard is a derivative of the one developed over 2015 and 2016, jointly by International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) and IiAS. The scorecard is based on the widely accepted G20/OECD principles of Corporate Governance.

The 2024 revision in the assessment framework of the scorecards follows the June 2023 revision of the G20/OECD Principles of Corporate Governance themselves. The revision introduced a dedicated chapter on Sustainability and Resilience, consolidating the earlier section on stakeholder roles. In line with this, the scorecard has been recalibrated to assign equal weight to Stakeholder Commitment, alongside Board Responsibilities, Shareholder Rights, and Transparency and Disclosure. The shift reflects the growing expectation that companies must account not just for how they create value, but for whom.

Over the past nine years, the Scorecard has tracked how corporate India governs itself. Governance has steadily deepened in scope over this time, and in its latest edition, the scorecard reflects this natural progression.

Several companies have maintained or even improved their performance on the scorecard. While the bar has been raised, the median score remained GOOD at 61. The highest score stood at 82, and the lowest rose to 50, marking the first time no company of the BSE 100 featured in the Basic (lowest) category.

Seven companies scored in the Leadership category, having scored 75 or above. Another 12 companies were recognized as Next Leaders, scoring between 70 and 74.

Leadership

• Axis Bank Limited
• Cipla Limited
• Dr Reddy’s Laboratories Limited
• ICICI Lombard General Insurance Company Limited
• Infosys Limited
• Mahindra and Mahindra Limited
• Marico Limited

Next Leaders

• Asian Paints Limited
• Bharti Airtel Limited
• HCL Technologies Limited
• HDFC Bank Limited
• HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited
• Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited
• Larsen and Toubro Limited
• Max Healthcare Institute Limited
• Persistent Systems Limited
• Tata Consumer Products Limited
• Tata Motors Limited
• Wipro Limited

Notes:

• IiAS revised its scoring methodology in 2022 and increased the threshold score for LEADERSHIP to 75 from the earlier 70. Based on the previous criterion of 70, all the companies listed in Next Leadership would have been part of the LEADERSHIP category.
• The list of companies above is in alphabetical order and not in the order of scores.
• Axis Bank, HDFC Bank Limited and Kotak Mahindra Bank are IiAS’ shareholders.
• HDFC Life Insurance Company Limited is a subsidiary of HDFC Bank Limited.
• ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited holds equity shares in IiAS. ICICI Lombard General Insurance Limited is a fellow subsidiary of ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited.
• Tata Investment Corporation Limited (TICL), Tata Consumer Products Limited and Tata Motors Limited are all part of the Tata group. TICL is one of IiAS’ shareholders.
• IiAS as a proxy advisor provides various services including voting advisory, publishing reports on corporate governance and related matters. These services are subscribed to by some of these companies, for which IiAS has received remuneration in the past twelve months.

India is now moving towards a more balanced approach to corporate citizenship. While the focus on corporate governance continues, there is now a more concerted effort at building sustainability into business operations. Companies are beginning to discuss the impact of climate change in their businesses and striving to manage these risks and minimize their carbon footprint. In line with India’s goal of becoming net zero by 2070, 60 of the BSE100 companies have already announced their own targets for either net zero or carbon neutrality, of which 35 have given interim milestones.

Strengthening boards continues to be a focus area – both for regulators and for companies. The end of the grandfathering of previous tenures of Independent Directors has resulted in a significant board refresh. Despite a handful of companies attempting to skirt the regulations to maintain their status quo – by rotating tenured independent directors across the group or onboarding ex-employees or employees of friendly firms – most companies have stayed with the mandate and used it as an opportunity to have younger board members.

Gender diversity at the board level continues to improve, but at a glacial pace. While companies are meeting the regulatory mandate of having at least one-woman Independent Directors, research suggests that the benefits of board diversity accrue when the board comprises 30% or more women. It is time for the narrative on gender diversity to change and be viewed in the context of board size.

The statistics on women in the workforce remain disappointing. For the past three years, the median women representation in the workforce has been around 20%, despite several companies claiming to be equal opportunity employers. Admittedly, this statistic is unlikely to change overnight, but having targeted gender balance in the workforce is in the interest of corporate India – at the very least, it increases the accessible talent pool for potential employment.

“This is the first time in nine years that there are no companies in the BASIC category (score of less than 50). This is reflective of the more well-rounded performance of corporate India on the governance framework.”, said Hetal Dalal, President and COO, IiAS.

“India is now moving towards a more balanced approach to corporate citizenship. While the focus on corporate governance continues, there is now a more concerted effort at building sustainability into business operations.” said Amit Tandon, Managing Director, IiAS.

Our 2024 report can be accessed through the link here and all our past assessments are available on our website here:

About Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS)

Institutional Investor Advisory Services India Limited (IiAS) is an advisory firm, dedicated to providing participants in the Indian market with independent opinion, research and data on corporate governance and ESG issues and currently issues voting recommendations on shareholder meetings for 1000+ companies.

IiAS provides bespoke research and assists institutions in their engagement with company managements and their boards. It runs two cloud-based platforms, SMART to help investors with undertaking and reporting on their stewardship activities and ADRIAN, a repository of resolutions and institutional voting pattern.

IiAS with the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and BSE Limited, has developed a Corporate Governance Scorecard for India to evaluate company's governance practices and market benchmarks. More recently, IiAS has extended its analysis to ESG. IiAS is now a signatory to UN supported PRI, is empanelled as an ESG Rating Provider with AMFI and provides Second Party Opinions on green bond issuances.

IiAS has equity participation by Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC Limited, Axis Bank Limited, Fitch Group Inc., HDFC Bank Limited, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance Company Limited, Kotak Mahindra Bank Limited, RBL Bank Limited, Tata Investment Corporation Limited, UTI Asset Management Company Limited and Yes Bank Limited.

IiAS is a SEBI registered entity [Proxy advisor registration number: INH000000024].