Know the indian counterpart of Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Corporate responsibility.

SOX and its counterparts the world over(Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Corporate responsibility.)

Name of the SOX counterpart	Country/Geography	Date of effect
J-SOX	Japan	April 2008
CLERP 9 (Corporate Law Economic Reform Program (Audit Reform and Corporate Disclosure) Act 2004)	Australia	2004
Bill 198 (Canadian Sarbanes-Oxley Act or C-SOX)	Ontario, Canada	October 1, 2003
Clause 49	India	December 2005
Euro-SOX (The 8th EU Directive or the audit directive)	European Union (EU)
Combined Code of Corporate Governance	England	1998
Law 262/2005 (The protection of savings and regulation of financial markets)	Italy	2005
Financial Security Law of France (LSF or Loi sur la Sécurité Financière)	France	July 17, 2003

India:-

The term ‘Clause 49’ refers to clause number 49 of the Listing Agreement between a company and the stock exchanges on which it is listed (the Listing Agreement is identical for all Indian stock exchanges, including the NSE and BSE). This clause is a recent addition to the Listing Agreement and was inserted as late as 2000 consequent to the recommendations of the Kumarmangalam Birla Committee on Corporate Governance constituted by the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI) in 1999.

• As per Clause 49, for a company with an Executive Chairman, at least 50 per cent of the board should comprise independent directors. In the case of a company with a non-executive Chairman, at least one-third of the board should be independent directors.

• It would be necessary for chief executives and chief financial officers to establish and maintain internal controls and implement remediation and risk mitigation towards deficiencies in internal controls, among others.

• Clause VI (ii) of Clause 49 requires all companies to submit a quarterly compliance report to stock exchange in the prescribed form. The clause also requires that there be a separate section on corporate governance in the annual report with a detailed compliance report.

• A company is also required to obtain a certificate either from auditors or practicing company secretaries regarding compliance of conditions as stipulated, and annex the same to the director's report.

• The clause mandates composition of an audit committee; one of the directors is required to be "financially literate".

• It is mandatory for all listed companies to comply with the clause by 31 December 2005.