Ruling out any move to regulate salaries in corporates, Minister for Corporate Affiars Prem Chand Gupta today said the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's remarks on salaries of CEOs were distorted and misinterpreted in the media.
"I went through the (Prime Minister's) address carefully and felt sorry for the way a particular portion of the speech was read and interpreted in isolation divorcing the context," Gupta said at a Confederation of Indian Industry seminar on Monday.
By doing so the intentions of a person (PM) were doubted "who has been spearheading the transformation of the Indian economy from a controlled inward looking and slow moving economy to the liberal and fast moving one that is integrating with the global economy in a smooth manner ", he said.
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TheThe minister further said on the issue of the number of independent directors on a company's board, it is the commitment and mindset and not so much the numbers that matter.
On whether the number of independent directors in the new Companies Bill would be different from SEBI norms or would be 50 per cent, 33 per cent or 25 per cent, Gupta said, "Numbers alone cannot bring good corporate governance. It is the intention, commitment, mindset which is going to make a difference".
He assured the industry leaders that the issue of number of independent directors was being taken care of in the revised Companies Act and the government would do "what the industry is expecting".
