The School for Corporate Governance (SCG) of the National Institute of Securities Markets (NISM) along with National Stock Exchange of India Ltd (NSE), KKR India Advisory Private Ltd and Aditya Birla Asset Management Company Ltd had organized a Conference on Corporate Governance for Listed Companies on May 28, 2019 at Mumbai.

In recent times, the regulatory environment for listed companies has been undergoing an evolution with Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) taking the lead in this area. One of the important reforms in the listing space is the amendments to SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015, which were notified in May 2018, based on the recommendations of Uday Kotak Committee Report on Corporate Governance. SEBI has also made wide-ranging amendments to SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015, which include maintenance of a structured database of insiders, separate code of conduct for fiduciaries, etc.

As the above amendments are effective from April 1, 2019, the Conference was organized to impress upon the Chief Executive Officers, Managing Directors, Independent Directors, Company Secretaries and other stakeholders about complying with these changes.

Mr.Vikaram Limaye, MD & CEO, NSE, in his Welcome Address gave a Stock Exchange perspective of compliance with listing and insider trading norms.

Dr.M.Thenmozhi, Director, NISM, spoke about the necessity of complying with the regulations by listed companies. She also explained in detail about the programmes conducted by NISM for market participants, regulators and academic community.

Mr.Sanjay Nayar, CEO, KKR India, spoke at length about the evolution of listing and insider trading regulations in India and indicated that by exhibiting sound corporate governance listed companies will become very attractive for investments by institutional investors.

Shri A Balasubramanian, CEO, Aditya Birla Sunlife AMC, explained to the participants about the various parameters being considered the institutional investors for investments, which include quality of Board of Directors, Accounting Policy, Disclosure Norms and Financial Discipline.

Mr.G.Mahalingam, Whole Time Member, SEBI, in his Keynote Address, dwelt upon the Principle as well as Rule based approach of SEBI to enhance corporate governance standards in listed entities.Mr.Mahalingam also touched upon the governance issues such as quality of Independent Directors, Audit Committee, governance matrix, sustainability of companies from investor perspective and prohibition of insider trading norms.

Mr Sandeep Parekh, Founder Partner, Finsec Law Advisors, made a detailed presentation about the recent changes to SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015.

Dr. V.R.Narasimhan, Dean, NISM, shared with the participants about the system and practices being adopted by top listed companies for complying with the recent changes to SEBI (Prohibition of Insider Trading) Regulations, 2015.

This was followed by a Panel Discussion to throw light on the nitty-gritty of the recent amendments. Dr. V.R.Narasimhan, Dean, NISM, was the moderator of the panel discussion and the panelists were:

• Mr V S Sundaresan, Chief General Manager, SEBI

• Mr Jayanta Jash, Chief General Manager, SEBI

• Mr.Sandeep Parekh, Founder Partner, Finsec Law Advisors

The deliberations were well received by the participants and helped them in understanding the nuances of the latest amendments.