Coal and Railway Minister Piyush Goyal has raised concerns about some of the recommendations made by the committee on corporate governance led by Kotak Mahindra Bank executive vice chairman Uday Kotak, which submitted its report to the market watchdog SEBI on Thursday.
Referring to the committee’s recommendation that board members must have educational qualifications and expertise in the concerned industry, Mr. Goyal said: “Let me tell you, he (Uday Kotak) has gone completely off the mark here. I became the power minister of the country, I didn’t know the P of power and C of coal. That was the farthest thing on my mind.”
Arguing that IAS officers across the country have done a great job as generalists, and even E. Sreedharan didn’t know what a metro looked like when he became India’s Metro Man, Mr. Goyal said if everybody assumed the mindset that only experts could deliver, then initiatives such as Make In India or Start Up India would be ‘history’.
“To my mind, you have to encourage diversity of experience, opinion… Dhirubhai Ambani probably never went beyond a certain basic level of education. So, I think this is completely wrong thinking. Just education doesn’t make a man great or an expert in the field and the most educated people run some of the biggest frauds,” he argued.
‘Some ideas good’
“Some of the committee’s ideas, such as making women directors compulsory on all boards are good,” he said adding many others were ‘inappropriate’.
“He also said boards themselves should decide on independent directors. ... this is already happening, That is where the problem is. When I run my board, I will choose people who will be yes-men and listen to me and go by what I say,” he pointed out, before adding that he would discuss these issues with Mr. Kotak.