How has the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) contributed in improving corporate governance standards in India?

India's corporate governance reforms were initially spearheaded by corporate India and quickly became an important component of the work of the country's primary capital markets regulatory authority, the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI). The SEBI had set up a Committee under the Chairmanship of Kumar Mangalam Birla in the year 2000 to promote and raise standards of corporate governance. The Report of the Committee was the first formal and comprehensive attempt to evolve a Code of Corporate Governance, in the context of prevailing conditions of governance in Indian companies, as well as the state of capital markets at that time. The recommendations of the Report, led to inclusion of Clause 49 in the Listing Agreement. In the year 2002, SEBI analyzed the statistics of compliance with the Clause 49 by listed companies and felt that there was a need to look beyond the mere systems and procedures if corporate governance was to be made effective in protecting the interest of investors. SEBI therefore constituted a Committee under the Chairmanship of Shri N.R. Narayana Murthy, for reviewing implementation of the corporate governance code by listed companies and for issue of revised Clause 49 based on its recommendations. SEBI, as part of its endeavour to improve the standards of Corporate Governance in line with the needs of a dynamic market has amended the Clause 49 from time to time. SEBI vide its circular dated April 17, 2014 came out with 'Corporate Governance in Listed Entities - Amendments to Clause 49' of the Equity Listing Agreement which laid down the detailed Corporate Governance norms for listed companies providing for stricter disclosures and protection of investor rights, including equitable treatment for minority and foreign shareholders. The new norms were aligned with the Companies Act, 2013 and were aimed to encourage companies to adopt best practices on Corporate Governance. Again, with a view to consolidate and streamline the provisions of existing listing agreements for different segments of the capital market and to align the provision relating to listed entities with the Companies Act 2013, SEBI has notified the SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015 on September 2, 2015 regulations. The new Listing Regulations have been structured to provide ease of reference by consolidating regulations into one single document across various types of securities listed on the Stock Exchanges.