'India making progress on female representation on boards'

Women are still underrepresented across Asia Pacific boards but three countries including India have displayed significant improvement in broadening women representation on boards, says a Korn Ferry report.
According to a study by Korn Ferry and the National University of Singapore Business School's Centre for Governance, Institutions and Organisations, companies with greater female representation in the boardroom tend to be more profitable, but women still remain underrepresented across Asia Pacific boards.
According to the findings, three countries in the Asia Pacific region, Australia, India and Malaysia, showed significant improvement in broadening women representation on boards across the companies.
On India, the report said: "India has made significant progress in broadening female representation across companies. Companies there reported an increase in female board representation from 7.3 per cent to 8.6 per cent in 2014."

"The Company Act, which required all listed companies to have at least one woman on the board, has helped enable this broadening female representation," it added.
The study, titled 'Building Diversity in Asia Pacific Boardrooms', examined the largest 100 publicly listed firms' 2014 annual reports in 10 Asia Pacific economies: Australia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea.

"Most countries reviewed in this study showed little or no improvement. However, India, Australia and Malaysia have seen regulatory action or governmental support for promoting board diversity. This is why you can see a 1.3 per cent change in India," Navnit Singh, Chairman and Managing Director of India for Korn Ferry International said.

The report noted Asia Pacific still lags substantially behind major economies.
"Asia Pacific falls far behind benchmark global economies such as the United States, the United Kingdom and the European Union. For the region to reach parity with these markets, it would require another decade of growth at the current pace," the report said.
All male boards are no longer a majority in Asia Pacific region with a significant drop from 53.2 per cent in 2012 to 39.0 per cent in 2014. However, they still lag far behind Financial Times Stock Exchange (FTSE) 100 companies; there are no longer any all-male FTSE 100 boards.