In compliance with Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement, the Company has adopted a Code of Ethics for Principal Executives and Senior Financial Officers. This Code is applicable to all the members of the Board, the Executive Council and senior financial officers. This Code is in addition to the Company's Code of Business Conduct, applicable to all the employees of the Company.
A copy of the said Code of Ethics for Principal Executives and Senior Financial Officers and the Code of Business Conduct is available on our website, www.infosys.com.
All the members of the Board and the Executive Council and senior financial officers have affirmed compliance to the Code of Ethics for Principal Executives and Senior Financial Officers and the Code of Business Conduct, as at March 31, 2010. A declaration to this effect signed by the CEO and Managing Director and the CFO is provided in the CEO and CFO certification section of the Annual Report.
The details of the last three Annual General Meetings and that of the extraordinary general meeting are as follows :
Financial year ended |
Date and Time |
Venue |
Special resolution passed |
| March 31, 2007 | June 22, 2007 at 3 p.m. IST | NIMHANS Convention Center, Hosur Road, Bangalore, India |
Payment of remuneration in the form of commission to directors who are neither in the whole-time employment of the Company nor a managing director |
| March 31, 2008 | June 14, 2008 at 3 p.m. IST | NIMHANS Convention Center, Hosur Road, Bangalore, India |
None |
| March 31, 2009 | June 20, 2009 at 3 p.m. IST | Christ University Auditorium, Hosur Road, Bangalore, India |
None |
Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement mandates us to obtain a certificate from either the auditors or practicing company secretaries regarding compliance of conditions of corporate governance as stipulated in the Clause, and annex the certificate with the Directors' report, which is sent annually to all our shareholders. We have obtained a certificate to this effect and the same is given as an annexure to the Directors' report.
The Clause further states that the non-mandatory requirements may be implemented as per our discretion. However, the disclosures of compliance with mandatory requirements and adoption (and compliance) / non-adoption of the non-mandatory requirements shall be made in this section of the Annual Report. We comply with the following non-mandatory requirements :
Independent directors may have a tenure not exceeding, in the aggregate, a period of nine years on our Board.
None of the independent directors on our Board have served for a tenure exceeding nine years from the date when the new Clause 49 became effective.
We have instituted a compensation committee. A detailed note on compensation / remuneration committee is provided in the Annual Report.
The Clause states that a half-yearly declaration of financial performance, including summary of the significant events in the last six months, may be sent to each shareholder.
We communicate with investors regularly through e-mail, telephone and face-to-face meetings either in investor conferences, company visits or on road shows.
We also leverage the internet in communicating with our investor base. We announce quarterly financial results within two weeks of the close of a quarter. After the announcement of the quarterly financial results, a business television channel in India telecasts a live discussion with our Management. This enables a large number of retail shareholders in India to understand our operations better. The announcement of quarterly results is followed by media briefings in several television channels, press conferences and earnings conference calls. The earnings calls are webcast live on the internet so that information is available to all at the same time. Further, transcripts of the earnings calls are posted on our website, www.infosys.com, within a week. Highlights of the results are also made available to mobile phone users in India through SMS and WAP. We have also voluntarily furnished eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) data to the SEC. We are participating in SEC's voluntary program for reporting financial information on EDGAR using XBRL and are one of the few companies in the world to adopt this standard. We adopted IFRS effective fiscal 2009 for our filings with SEC and consequently discontinued publishing financial statements as per U.S. GAAP.
All new non-executive directors inducted into the Board are given an orientation. Presentations are made by various executive directors and senior management giving an overview of our operations to familiarize the new non-executive directors with the operations. The new
non-executive directors are given orientation on our services, group structure and subsidiaries, our constitution, Board procedures and matters reserved for the Board, our major risks and risk management strategy.
The Board's policy is to have separate meetings regularly with independent directors to update them on all business-related issues and new initiatives. In such meetings, the executive directors and other members of the senior management share point of views and leadership thoughts on relevant issues.
We also facilitate the continual education requirements of our directors. Each director is entitled for a training fee of US $5,000 per annum. Independent directors are allowed to attend educational programs in the areas of board / corporate governance.
The Board evaluates the performance of non-executive / independent directors through a peer-evaluation process every year. Each external Board member has to present before the entire Board on how they have performed / added value to the Company. Every Board member evaluates each external Board member on a scale of 1 to 10 based on the performance indicators.
Independent directors have three key roles, namely, governance, control and guidance. Some of the performance indicators based on which the independent directors are evaluated include :
We have established a mechanism for employees to report concerns about unethical behavior, actual or suspected fraud, or violation of our code of conduct or ethics policy. It also provides for adequate safeguards against victimization of employees who avail of the mechanism, and also allows direct access to the Chairperson of the audit committee in exceptional cases. We further affirm that no employee has been denied access to the audit committee.
During the year, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, published the Corporate Governance Voluntary Guidelines 2009. These Guidelines have been published keeping in view the objective of encouraging the use of better practices through voluntary adoption, which not only serve as a benchmark for the corporate sector but also help them in achieving the highest standard of corporate governance. These guidelines provide corporate India a framework to govern themselves voluntarily as per the highest standards of ethical and responsible conduct of business. The Ministry hopes that adoption of these guidelines will also translate into a much higher level of stakeholders’ confidence which is crucial to ensure the
long-term sustainability and value generation by business. The guidelines broadly focuses on areas such as Board of Directors, responsibilities of the Board, audit committee functions, roles and responsibilities, appointment of auditors, Compliance with Secretarial Standards and a mechanism for whistle blower support. We substantially comply with the Corporate Governance Voluntary Guidelines.
SEBI, with a view to improve corporate governance standards in India and to enhance the transparency and integrity of the market, constituted the Committee on Corporate Governance under the chairmanship of N. R. Narayana Murthy. The committee issued two sets of recommendations : the mandatory recommendations and the non-mandatory recommendations.
SEBI has incorporated the recommendations made by the Narayana Murthy Committee on Corporate Governance in Clause 49. A revised Clause 49 was made effective from January 1, 2006. We fully comply with the revised Clause 49 of the Listing Agreement.
Following instances of irregularities involving auditors in the U.S. and in India, the Government of India, by an order dated August 21, 2002, constituted a high-level committee under the chairmanship of Naresh Chandra to examine the auditor-company relationship and to regulate the role of auditors. Chapters 2, 3 and 4 of the Naresh Chandra Committee report are relevant to us. We comply with these recommendations.
SEBI appointed the Committee on Corporate Governance on
May 7, 1999, under the chairmanship of Kumar Mangalam Birla, to promote and raise the standards of corporate governance. The SEBI Board adopted the recommendations of the committee on January 25, 2000. We comply with these recommendations.
‘Euroshareholders’ is the confederation of European shareholders associations, constituted to represent the interests of individual shareholders in the European Union. The guidelines are based on the general principles of corporate governance issued by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in 1999, but are more specific and detailed. Subject to the statutory regulations in force in India, we comply with these recommendations.
The Conference Board Commission on Public Trust and Private Enterprises was convened to address the circumstances which led to corporate irregularities and the subsequent decline of confidence in American capital markets. The Commission addressed three key areas – executive compensation, corporate governance, and audit and accounting issues, and issued its first set of findings and recommendations. We substantially comply with these recommendations.
The governments of the 30 countries in the OECD have recently approved a revised version of the OECD's Principles of Corporate Governance adding new recommendations for good practice in corporate behavior with a view to rebuilding and maintaining public trust in companies and stock markets. We comply with these recommendations.
A detailed compliance report with the recommendations of various committees listed in this section is available on our website www.infosys.com.
Announced by the United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in January 1999, and formally launched at the UN Headquarters in July 2000, the Global Compact policy calls on companies to embrace ten principles in the areas of human rights, labor standards and environment. The policy is a value-based platform designed to promote institutional learning. It utilizes the power of transparency and dialog to identify and disseminate good practices based on universal principles. The ten principles are drawn from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Labor Organization’s Fundamental Principles on Rights at Work, and the Rio Principles on Environment and Development.
According to these principles, businesses should :
On August 27, 2001, we adopted the United Nations Global Compact policy and became a partner with the United Nations in this initiative. A strong sense of social responsibility is an integral part of our value system. We adhere to the principles of the United Nations Global Compact policy.