India's top 500 listed companies have only nine women chief executive officers and 25 women managing directors, according to data presented by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in the Lok Sabha on Monday. Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra revealed these figures in response to an unstarred question from Trinamool Congress MP Saayoni Ghosh, based on filings in the MCA21 database for companies ranked by turnover. The data shows that women account for 860 Directors or Board Members overall, including 18 Additional Directors, 738 Directors, 25 Managing Directors, 12 Nominee Directors, and 67 Whole-Time Directors. Among the prominent women leaders are Vibha Padalkar of HDFC Life, Vishakha Mulye of Aditya Birla Capital, Priya Nair of Hindustan Unilever, Praveena Rai of Multi Commodity Exchange of India (who previously served as CEO of National Payments Corporation of India), Prabha Narasimhan of Colgate-Palmolive (India), and Jasleen Kohli of Digit Insurance. The companies also have 22 women Chief Financial Officers, demonstrating limited representation in senior leadership positions.
The government disclosed that the Registrar of Companies passed 50 adjudication orders for non-compliance with women director norms between 2021-22 and 2025-26, collecting penalties totalling ₹71,01,500. According to the ministry's response, the number of such cases peaked at 19 in 2023-24 before declining to 8 in 2025-26. The ministry noted that the Companies Act, 2013, does not define the position of 'Chairperson' or 'Chief Technology Officer,' hence no data is maintained on these categories. The data shows specific enforcement patterns: 2 orders in 2021-22, 10 in 2022-23, 19 in 2023-24, 11 in 2024-25, and 8 in 2025-26.
According to the ministry's data, the companies have 67 women Executive Directors (Whole-Time Directors), 638 women Independent Directors, and 22 women Chief Financial Officers. Separately, the ministry reported that 11,60,933 women are currently associated with active companies as directors, out of a total of 39,99,656 directors across the country. The ministry noted that 21.39 lakh companies and 5.06 lakh LLPs are currently active across the states, with 15.48 lakh companies registered in the last 10 years. The ministry also revealed that no assessment regarding barriers to progression of Women Directors has been conducted by the Ministry, with Minister Harsh Malhotra stating in his response that 'No such assessment regarding barriers to progression of Women Directors has been done by this Ministry.'
The ministry cited the second proviso to Section 149(1) of the Companies Act, read with Rule 3 of the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014, which mandates that every listed company and every unlisted public company with paid-up share capital of ₹100 crore or more, or turnover of ₹300 crore or more, must appoint at least one woman director. Any vacancy in this position must be filled within three months or by the next board meeting, whichever is later. The rule also provides that the sitting fee of a woman director shall not be less than the sitting fee payable to other directors. The ministry stated that no new policy interventions, targets or incentives are currently under consideration to improve gender diversity in corporate governance, citing the existing statutory framework as sufficient. The Companies Act, 2013, does not define the position of 'Chairperson' or 'Chief Technology Officer,' hence the ministry does not maintain data on these categories.
