India's top 500 listed firms have only 9 women CEOs, 25 MDs: Govt data
New Delhi, Aug 12, 2026
Women remain underrepresented in senior corporate leadership, with just nine CEOs and 25 MDs among India's top 500 listed companies, according to data presented by the government in the Lok Sabha
India's top 500 listed companies continue to have limited representation of women in senior leadership, with only nine women serving as chief executive officers (CEOs) and 25 as managing directors (MDs), according to data presented by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra, replying to a question from Trinamool Congress MP Saayoni Ghosh, said the figures were based on filings in the MCA21 database for the top 500 listed companies by turnover.
How many women are in senior leadership at India's top firms?
According to the data, the top 500 listed companies had 860 women directors or board members overall. This included 18 additional directors, 738 directors, 25 managing directors, 12 nominee directors and 67 whole-time directors. The companies had only nine women CEOs and 22 women chief financial officers (CFOs).
Women’s participation is much broader across the overall corporate universe. According to data, 1.16 million women are currently associated with active companies as directors, out of a total of 3.9 million directors across the country. India currently has 2.14 million active companies and 506,000 active limited liability partnerships (LLPs) across the states. A total of 1.55 million companies have been registered in the last 10 years.
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 earlier served as CEO of National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), Prabha Narasimhan of Colgate-Palmolive (India) and Jasleen Kohli of Digit Insurance are among the prominent women MDs and CEOs in the country.
Malhotra also said that no assessment had been carried out on the barriers to the progression of women directors. While the statutory framework requires certain companies to have at least one woman director, the ministry had not separately assessed the barriers affecting the progression of women directors. “No such assessment regarding barriers to progression of Women Directors has been done by this Ministry,” Malhotra said in his response.
The minister also said 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”. As a result, the ministry said it does not maintain data on these categories.
How many companies have faced action for not appointing women directors?
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs also provided data on non-compliance with the statutory requirement for appointing women directors.
Over the last five years, from 2021-22 to 2025-26, the Registrars of Companies passed 50 adjudication orders, imposing penalties totalling ₹71.01 lakh.
The number of orders rose from two in 2021-22 to 10 in 2022-23 and peaked at 19 in 2023-24. It subsequently declined to 11 in 2024-25 and eight in 2025-26. The data provides a picture of how compliance with the women-director requirement has been enforced over the past five years.
What does the current legal provision say?
The Companies Act, 2013, and the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014, require every listed company and every unlisted public company having paid-up share capital of ₹100 crore or more, or turnover of ₹300 crore or more, to appoint at least one woman director on its board.
The requirement is aimed at ensuring a minimum level of women’s representation at the board level in qualifying companies. Any intermittent vacancy in the position of a woman director has to be filled by the board no later than the immediate next board meeting or within three months from the date of the vacancy.
The rules also provide that the sitting fee paid to a woman director should not be less than the sitting fee payable to other directors.
[The Business Standard]
