Almost 50% of Indian companies without women directors are PSUs
What's the story
A recent analysis by Primeinfobase has revealed that public sector undertakings (PSUs) in India are lagging behind in terms of gender diversity on their boards.
The study found that nearly half of the 57 firms without a woman director belong to PSUs.
This is despite the fact that 97% of the 2,133 companies listed on the NSE mainboard have at least one female director on their board.
Decline
Declining trend of female directors in PSU boards
The Primeinfobase analysis also points out a concerning trend of declining female representation on PSU boards over the years.
In FY18, 67 of 71 listed PSUs had at least one woman director, indicating a participation rate of 94.4%.
However, this percentage has plummeted to 67.1% by March 2025, with only 53 of the 79 listed PSUs having a female member on their board.
Policy impact
Gender diversity on boards: A policy requirement
The mandate for companies to appoint at least one female director on their boards was introduced in 2014.
Since then, overall women's participation on boards has witnessed a major jump.
The percentage of firms with two or more women directors has increased from 29% to 48% over the past five years.
However, many private sector firms reportedly complied with the rule by appointing women who are relatives or close associates of the promoter.
Executive gender gap
C-suite roles: Female representation remains low
Despite the policy change, women remain woefully underrepresented in C-suite roles, occupying only 5% of top positions across all companies.
In the last five years, little progress has been made in appointing women as MDs or CEOs.
The mandate for one woman independent director in the top 500 firms by market capitalization, came into effect on April 1, 2019, and for the top 1,000 companies on April 1, 2020.