Corporate boardrooms may see seats reserved for
women
New Delhi: In the wake of pressure from several quarters, including women’s
organisations and investor protection groups, the government is planning to announce the
compulsory reservation of two seats on the board of companies for women. It has further
sought to clarify that this reservation will be for professional women, thus pre-empting
any thoughts by promoters and promoter-groups to fill these posts with friends and female
relatives.
If the government forces this issue, like in politics where the male politicians have been
fiercely resisting the imposition of reservation of seats for women, in case of companies,
the opposition is likely to be as strong.
Company law provides that in case of a public company, it should have a minimum of three
directors, while in the case of all other companies, they should have at least two
directors. There is no ceiling on the number of directors, but most companies function
with a strength of 10 to 15 directors.
Two women professional directors out of 10 works out to about 20 per cent of the board
being reserved for women professionals, while it would be 13.33 per cent in case of a
15-member strong board.
In that sense, the reservation would not be in line with what is being sought by women
parliamentarians.
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page Trai recommends four more operators
besides DoT
New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended entry of four
private operators in addition to the Department of Telecommunication Services while
reviewing the opening up of the long distance sector.
It has also recommended that the new operators be chosen through a bidding process in
which the bid amount is the percentage of revenue, which the operator proposes to share
with the government. Besides, it has also suggested fixing a floor or minimum revenue
share of seven per cent, which consists of 2 per cent to cover the costs of administering
the licence and five per cent by way of contributions towards a universal service
obligation.
The second, third and fourth highest bidder will have to match the highest bid. In its
comments to TRAI, the DTS had proposed capping the revenue share at 15 per cent including
USO obligations.
This recommendation is contrary to what the DTS wanted, wherein it was envisaged that the
operators be chosen on the basis of the entry fee they were willing to pay. In other
words, the entry fee was to be the biddable item.
The TRAI has also recommended that the DTS would have have to pay licence fee by way of
revenue sharing along with the other operators. The DoT had argued that the National
Telecom Policy does not envisage payment of licence fee for existing operations.
If this recommendation is accepted DTS would have to pay the highest revenue share bid
for. Thus if the highest bid is 25 per cent of revenue, then DTS would have to pay this
amount.
The TRAI has also differed with DTS on whether the domestic portion of international long
distance calls can be carried by private long distance operators.
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