Women in India Inc — Only 100 out of 2,000 listed firms have women as MD and CEOs

The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has 2,041 companies listed on it but only a hundred of these have a woman as a Managing Director (MD) or a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). The silver lining is that 1,986 of these companies now have women directors, according to data from the bourse. This translates to only 55 out of the 2000-odd NSE-listed firms. Moreover, 1,667 of these companies have women as independent directors.

When it comes to the number of directorships in NSE-listed companies held by women who are an MD or CEO the reading is just a tad better at 109.

Recently it was reported that, according to data by media organisation Inc42 as of May 2022, only 15 percent of Indian unicorns had at least one female founder. According to the 2020-2021 report by the Ministry of Small, Micro and Medium Enterprises, only 20 percent of MSMEs are owned by women.

Last year, Finance Nirmala Sitharaman said that boards cannot continue to be comfortable men's clubs as she batted for more women representation in boards. The Finance Minister said there can be men who are condescending, but there are also many who are not. "I wouldn't be standing in front of you if the tough world made it impossible for women to succeed," she had said.

Last month, panellists at the World Economic Forum in Davos also agreed that in order to get more women at the table women, it is important to get more men on their side. Union Minister Smriti Irani, who was one of the speakers on the panel, said if men are at the helm of this partnership, things change.

She had also spoken about how over the years it has come to the fore, that more women are turning to entrepreneurship.

Giving the examples of the Mudra loans and Standup India programme, she said there nowhere was it mentioned that it was only for women. "What surprised the people in the fiscal world was that 70 percent of the 320 million (Mudra) loans given out were taken by women. Which means, many recognised that at the entry-level of an enterprise, there is a female talent, which by that time was appearing to be unrecognised," she said, adding that the case was similar for the Standup India programme as well.