Document Type

Essay

Degree Name

Master of Laws

Abstract

This paper uses four concepts key to the ESG agenda – investor stewardship codes, corporate purpose, independent directors and ESG disclosures – to examine which way the corporate convergence pendulum is swinging in India. It finds that none of the aforesaid concepts are examples of perfect convergence or perfect divergence. Instead, they lie somewhere in the convergence-divergence matrix – India’s investor stewardship codes and framework on independent directors are examples of formal convergence but functional divergence, and her corporate law provisions on corporate purpose and ESG disclosure are functionally convergent, but formally divergent. The dichotomies in the analysis are explained on a case-by-case basis for each of the four concepts, as varying path-dependent, political, institutional and social forces determine the ‘level’ of convergence or divergence. The paper concludes by arguing that attempts to create ‘perfect convergence’ or standardization of corporate law in India have (and must) fail, because of social, political and economic norms and institutional resistance at the margins. In doing so, the paper adds to the increasingly relevant body of work emerging in Asia, measuring levels of convergence with ‘Western’ and global corporate governance systems since Profs. Hansmann and Kraakmaan’s influential ‘end of history’ thesis in 2001.

Disciplines

Business Organizations Law | Law

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