Jayant Sinha pitches for changes in Companies Act, Sebi norms

To strengthen corporate governance, more changes might be required in the Companies Act as well as in the Sebi regulations for listed companies, Union Minister Jayant Sinha said on Tuesday.

"We are seeing major changes on corporate governance, (and) major changes in the nature of capitalism. This is well established within the framework we are following being a pro-poor as well as pro-market government," he said at an event organised by Ficci here.

Sinha, Minister of State for Finance, said, "There are more changes that might be required in Companies Act, there are more changes that may be required how Sebi deals with listed entities...to strengthen corporate governance."

Recalling the time when the NDA came to power in 2014, he said there was lack of confidence in governance both in the government as well as corporations. As a result of this, foreign direct investment and domestic investment came to a halt, he said. But things improved on governance front after the new government took charge in May 2014.

"So governance is going to be very important for us. If we are not able to sustain and follow the best standard of corporate governance it will be very difficult for our corporate to attract investment and talent to build businesses," he said.

Therefore, the whole process and manner of corporate governance becomes very important, he added.