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'Regulators with teeth, free press will lead to good corporate governance'

Strengthening of the Securities and Exchange Board of India and a free and vibrant financial press will go a long way in ensuring better corporate governance which was an essential ingredient for a healthy economy.

This was highlighted by experts who were participating in a session on ''Corporate Governance'' at the ''1998 World Economic Summit'' in New Delhi. The speakers said a free press will ensure that inefficiencies of the corporate sector are exposed so that industrial growth is maximised.

It was stated that the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government and its alliance partners through the national agenda for governance had committed themselves to creating a stable, honest, transparent and efficient government through a time-bound programme and administrative reforms. This commitment was highly appreciated by both the local and international business community.

Those who took part in the panel discussion included Jamshyd N Godrej, a well-known industrialist, Donald Morrison, editor, of Time magazine, Hong Kong, Krishna G Palepu, professor of Business Administration, Harvard School of Business Administration, the United States and Shawkar Ghose, executive director, the National Foundation for India.

It was stated that in a democracy, government cannot do everything. The corporate sector and civil society have an important role to play. Right to information was crucial for ensuring good governance. There is a need to partnership between the corporate sector, people and government in taking the economy to a higher pedestal and improving the quality of life.

The East Asian crisis had underlined the lesson that the state which had assumed the sole role of carrying out economic development and political governance was being questioned by the people, who wanted a role in managing the different systems.

The experts said the Japanese model of corporate governance was not successful because of its close linkage with the banks which had failed but the Anglo-Saxon model was proving to be better.

Those who provide access to information and a free press will be the forerunners in the 21st century and those who do not have this privilege will be condemned to darkness. Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen was cited to substantiate this argument who had opined that famines were not possible where a free press flourished.

UNI

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