Corporate Governance and Disclosure Practices of Indian Firms

Corporate governance focuses on a company's structure and processes to ensure fair, responsible, transparent and accountable corporate behavior. The sample for the study was collected from the firms listed in BSE in the form of S&P BSE sector indices. The sample firms represent different sectors viz.: Auto, Metal, Oil & Gas; Consumer Durables; Capital Goods; FMCG; Health Care; IT; and Power. In each of these sectors, top 6 firms as per market capitalization are selected for sample. Out of sample size of 54 firms, the sample consists of 9 public sector firms (16.67%), 13 multinational ownership (24%) and others with dominant Indian ownership (59.25%). For the purpose of study, data of the sample firms collected from the annual reports of the same for the year 20011-12. With the help of content analysis, corporate governance score was measured based on corporate governance and disclosure instrument. Finally, this study makes comparison of corporate governance and disclosure practices of firms across various sectors.Paper received BEST PAPER award in the RBCON Conference