Corporate Governance and Timeliness of Financial Reporting by Indian Companies: An Empirical Study

The Indian economy showed an impressive growth of 8.8% in June of 2010 fueled by various sectors and the indicators are positive regarding the foreign reserves and foreign direct investment. But, there are also some constraints and lack of transparency present in its governance issues. As corporate governance became the subject of attention in recent times, its presence is like a backbone for any corporate that emphasizes its role for survival and sustainable growth in the long run. It ensures transparency. Transparency includes the following eight concepts, namely accuracy, consistency, appropriateness, completeness, clarity, timeliness, convenience, and governance & enforcement. Out of these, Timeliness of financial reporting is one of the attribute of good corporate governance identified by the OECD and World Bank. Shareholders and other Stakeholders need information while it is fresh and with high relevance. This paper examines the timeliness of financial reporting by Indian companies which constitute the SENSEX index of BSE. Timeliness was measured by counting the number of days that has been lapsed between year-end and the date of the auditor's report of the concerned companies. As Sensex became the face of the Indian economy, we took 30 companies present in the SENSEX index of Bombay Stock Exchange and compared their reporting patterns for the financial years 2006–2010. The reliable data were drawn from the CMIE database Prowess and the Annual reports of the respective companies for the years 2006–2010 .