Corporate Governance (CG) may be construed as a system and process through which the behavior of a company is monitored and controlled. In the past few decades, CG has gained a lot of importance across the world. It is about promoting corporate fairness, transparency and accountability. In other words, ‘good corporate governance’ is simply ‘good business’. The establishment of SEBI, a regulatory body, has played a significant role in establishing the norms for CG in India. There are five more major financial regulatory bodies in India. Among these, three are Statutory Bodies created through Parliamentary enactments and two are part of the Ministries of the Government of India. Over the years, SEBI constituted two committees to make recommendations relating to CG in India, under the chairmanship of Kumar Mangalam Birla and Narayana Murthy. Further, the MCA had appointed the J J Irani Committee in 2004 to review the international best practices in CG, in the light of the growing needs of the Indian economy and corporate. The recommendations of these committees form the bedrock of the legal regime for CG in India. This paper discusses how the rapidly increasing economic growth that corporate India has witnessed since the 1990s has brought to the forefront the need for Indian companies to adopt CG practices and standards that are consistent with the international principles. This paper attempts to provide a broad overview of the regulatory framework governing CG and the various financial regulatory bodies in India.

Good Corporate Governance (CG) is a reflection of quality management with the highest caliber, understanding the role that high CG standards play in maintaining checks and balances within the organization, increasing transparency and preventing corporate abuse and mismanagement. Moreover, CG describes the structure of rights and responsibilities among the parties that have a stake in the firm. The 2013 Act also intends to improve CG by requiring disclosure of nature of concern or interest of every director, manager, any other key managerial personnel and relatives of such a director, manager or any other key managerial personnel and reduction in threshold of disclosure from 20% to 2%. The term ‘key managerial personnel’ has now been defined in the 2013 Act and means the chief executive officer, managing director, manager, company secretary, whole-time director, chief financial officer and any such other officer as may be prescribed.1 The MCA released the CG voluntary guidelines in 2009, which permitted three tenures for an independent director, while as per the Clause 49 of the equity listing agreement, an independent director cannot serve for more than nine consecutive years.

The establishment of SEBI,2 a regulatory body, has played a significant role in establishing the norms for CG in India. There are five more major financial regulatory bodies in India. Among these, three are Statutory Bodies created through Parliamentary enactments and two are part of the Ministries of the Government of India.

Law Review Journal, Corporate Governance (CG), SEBI, Evolution, Meaning, Financial Regulatory Bodies, UK, US, Concept of CG, inancial, Regulatory, India.