Nearly 90 per cent of the companies listed on the National Stock Exchange are believed to have complied with market regulator Sebi's norm of having at least one woman director on their boards.
The number is expected to increase further as many companies have scheduled their board meeting till late night to meet the deadline of April 1.
To fall in line with Sebi's requirement, many firms are appointing same women executives to several boards, while others are naming wives, daughters, mothers and sisters of the promoters on their boards, say industry observers.
Till evening, nearly 200 firms, out of about 1,650 listed companies on the NSE, were yet to comply with the Sebi norm, as per the filings by the companies.
Listed companies are required to have at least one woman director before April 1 and recently, Sebi also indicated that there would not be any further relaxation of the deadline.
These guidelines, part of Sebi's Corporate Governance Code, were issued in February 2014 and the initial deadline of October 1, 2014 was extended by six months.
