Growth, progress, and prosperity of any country depend highly on the corporate governance mechanism of that country. Good governance of a country helps it to sustainable growth and consistency in progress. The good governance should contribute towards the improvement in transparency, ethics, morality, and disclosure. The principles of good governance stand on honesty, trust, integrity, openness, and performance orientation. Our honorable Prime Minister Narendra bhai Modi had given the three E for good governance during his speech on Independence Day i.e. Effective Governance, Electronic Governance, and Ethical Governance. The fundamental concern of corporate governance mechanism is to ensure the protection of minority shareholders/owners of specific firms. Mechanism of a corporate governance specifies the relations among the shareholders, board of directors, and managers. The present paper is an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the board by calculating the corporate governance score. The mandatory and non-mandatory guidelines have been considered while assigning points to specific parameters of the corporate governance.

Purpose: This article analyses the effect of board diversity on the financial performance of non-financial firms listed in the Nifty Index. Specifically, it examines the mediation effect of the promoter’s presence and multiple directorships on the financial performance of the firm, that is, return on net worth (RONW), return on equity (ROE) and its sales growth. Methodology: The article uses the hierarchical regression model to analyse the effect of board diversity on financial performance. The presence of the promoters on the board and multiple directorships are taken as the control variables. Findings: Empirical results show the significant effect of the promoter’s presence on the board on the firm’s earnings and a significant positive effect of firm age, board size, age diversity and experience diversity on the financial performance. However, we do not find any statistically significant relationship between firm size and financial performance in any model. The results also show that the age and experience of the female directors are significantly less compared to the male directors. However, the age and experience of the non-executive directors and independent directors are found to be higher among the other positions held by the directors. We also find a negative relationship between multiple directorships in other firms and the financial performance of the firm. Value: The article proposes that there should be a greater number of independent directors in a firm that has its promoter on the board. One recommendation for the board is to reduce the number of directorships held in other boards to ensure more constructive contribution towards the firm’s financial performance. The article studies the effect of the promoter’s presence on the board and multiple directorships held by board members on the financial performance of the firm.

In the era of commercialization and industrialization, people work day and night to survive in the market. In the struggle of survival, they forget the real meaning of the life. They measure everything in terms of the money. They forget that Sat-Chit-Ananda is the real form of a human being. The purpose of human life is to pursue true happiness. They identify man, money and material as the real source of happiness. Throughout their life, they seek happiness from each of these sources. In fact, they fail to get the same. The present paper is an attempt to reveal the views of ancient Indian scriptures on happiness. The paper uses the dialectic method to prove and disprove the various definitions of happiness. The definitions pointing to material happiness, physical happiness, sensual happiness, intellectual happiness, psychological happiness and spiritual happiness have been studied. The paper concludes with the scope of various sources of happiness. The article ends with various auspicious (AumAanoBhadra) things explained in our ancient Indian scripture that can be the sources of happiness.

The collapse of high profile large corporations such as Satyam, Enron etc. while performing the governance practices has raised many issues regarding good governance mechanism. The independent directors are one of the important mechanisms for the good governance practices in an organisation. In India two-third of the companies are family owned and therefore presence of independent directors on the board is very important to protect the rights of minority investors and other stakeholders. Independent directors with independent thoughts and action may lead to a constructive value addition for the firm. The present paper discusses the importance of independent directors on the board. The paper also shows a glimpse of the current picture of corporate structure and corporate governance in India. Though the role of independent director is most important to detect and prevent the unethical practices still it fails to perform their roles in many cases. This paper identifies and explains the drivers on reasons, why independent directors still fail to perform their fiduciary roles in many cases. Finally the article concludes based on the functioning of the independent directors and challenges for having an implementable code of conduct for them. The diverse opinion of the corporate experts, government bodies, and industry apex bodies is the need of the hour to make one that is easy to implement.

Growth, progress, and prosperity of any country depend highly on the corporate governance mechanism of that country. Good governance of a country helps it to sustainable growth and consistency in progress. The good governance should contribute towards the improvement in transparency, ethics, morality, and disclosure. The principles of good governance stand on honesty, trust, integrity, openness, and performance orientation. Our honorable Prime Minister Narendra bhai Modi had given the three E for good governance during his speech on Independence Day i.e. Effective Governance, Electronic Governance, and Ethical Governance. The fundamental concern of corporate governance mechanism is to ensure the protection of minority shareholders/owners of specific firms. Mechanism of a corporate governance specifies the relations among the shareholders, board of directors, and managers. The present paper is an attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of the board by calculating the corporate governance score. The mandatory and non-mandatory guidelines have been considered while assigning points to specific parameters of the corporate governance.