CG:2008:QR                                                                                            June 18, 2008

Dear Sirs/ Madams

Sub. : ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance Sub, 2008-Invitation to comment on the questionnaires and evaluation methodologies

We wish to inform that in pursuit for excellence and to identify, foster and reward the culture of evolving globally acceptable standards of corporate governance among Indian companies, the Institute instituted the “ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance" in the year 2001. The underlying guideline for the Corporate Governance Award is to identify the corporates, which best establish and follow, corporate governance norms in letter and spirit.

The awards comprising of citation and trophy are based on the outcome of concerted and comprehensive process which enables the Jury to judge, on the basis of well conceived parameters, the practices of corporate governance as benchmarked by Indian corporates and acknowledge the best practices worthy of being exemplified.

The current Annual Report, together with the Questionnaires finalised by an Expert Group form the basis for evaluating the governance practices in participating companies. After the first evaluation, a qualitative evaluation takes place of the short-listed e companies. At this stage ICSI also cross-verifies the status of these companies from concerned Registrar of Companies, Chief Vigilance Commissioner, Taxation Authorities, various Regulatory Authorities etc.

Head of the Jury

The Jury comprising of persons enjoying unparalleled eminence in their respective fields finalizes the awardees. Hon’ble Justice Shri M N Venkatachaliah, Former Chief Justice of India headed the Jury for the years 2001-03. The awardees for the year 2004 were finalized under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Justice Shri B N Kirpal, Former Chief Justice of India. For the years 2005 to 2007 the Jury under the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Justice Shri V N Khare finalized the awardees.

We are glad to inform that Mr. Justice  R C Lahoti, Former Chief Justice of India, has very kindly agreed to be the Chairman of Jury for adjudging the best among corporate citizens in India for the ICSI National Award for the year 2008.

As we march forward on our progressive journey, the process for organizing the Award function for this year has been initiated.

Evaluation Methodologies

We. in 2007, had hosted the draft questionnaires and the respective evaluation methodologies on the website of the Institute for public comments and suggestions and simultaneously  sent to the IIMs, OECD, ADB, SEBI, CII and other reputed management and law schools for their comments and suggestions. We are pleased to enclose herewith copies of the draft first questionnaire and the draft second questionnaire and the suggested evaluation methodologies for the respective questionnaires that are proposed to be used for the 2008 award after finalization by the Expert Group. We shall highly appreciate your comments and suggestions as they will help us to further improve the process of evaluation of participating companies in the ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance.

We shall be grateful for your valuable suggestions. The last date for sending your comments and suggestions is July 5, 2008.Comments and suggestions may please be sent at dbkk@icsi.edu

Yours sincerely,

(CS N K JAIN)
Secretary and CEO

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