Do Indian Healthcare Companies Disclose Timely Financial Reporting?

The Indian healthcare industry is growing at 9.9% in 2010 and predicted to grow at 9.5% up to 2015. In recent years, the Indian pharma majors expanded their operations by doing acquisitions and mergers globally. To move to the next level in the global healthcare industry, the Indian health industry should focus more on its regulatory compliance to win the highly regulated markets in the developed countries. As Corporate governance became the subject of attention in recent times, its presence is like a backbone for any corporate that emphasizes its role for survival and sustainable growth in the long run. It ensures transparency. Transparency includes the following eight concepts, namely accuracy, consistency, appropriateness, completeness, clarity, timeliness, convenience, and governance & enforcement. Timeliness of financial reporting is one of the attributes of good corporate governance identified by the OECD and World Bank. Shareholders and other Stakeholders need information while it is fresh and with high relevance. This paper examined the timeliness of financial reporting by 17 Indian pharma companies which constitute the HEALTHCARE index of Bombay Stock Exchange and compared their reporting patterns for the financial years from 2005–06 to 2009–10. The reliable data were drawn from Prowess, the CMIE (Center for Monitoring Indian Economy) database and from the annual reports of the respective companies. This study used Chi-Square Test and Analysis of Variance to analyze the data. It is found that there is no significant lag in financial reporting of Indian health care companies. However, there is a significant difference among the Indian healthcare companies in their reporting pattern.