“Role of regulators in maintaining standards of Corporate Governance ”

This research paper analyzes the role played by Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), the most important regulator of securities market and the Indian corporate world in improving the corporate governance standards of India. In the past, corporate governance was loosely defined with its terms found in Company Law, accounting standards and the internal controls within the company. However the need for adopting corporate governance standards and practices by Indian companies arose since 1990s with the growth in the corporate India. Since the late 1990s the concept of Corporate Governance as “the policy, process, structure and information used for direction and controlling the management of an entity” began to take shape with the establishment of Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 1992.

The research paper explains the concept of corporate governance, evolution of corporate governance over a period of time, literature review, comments on this review and conclusion. SEBI has undertaken lot of initiatives to improve the corporate governance mechanism in India. However, a lot of efforts need to be put in at individual company level to take standards of corporate governance at new highs.