Annual General Meetings can be interesting affairs, such as those in Delhi, where gangs of shareholders threaten to hector, sloganeer, chuck accusations and otherwise disrupt shareholder meetings unless bought off.
Something similar used to happen in Japan, when the Yakuza, the Japanese mafia, would also threaten to disrupt AGM’s unless paid off. Japanese companies came up with a unique solution. Now, AGM’s of all companies in Tokyo are conducted at the same time – 11am on a Saturday morning in June across hundreds school halls all over Tokyo. Even the Yakuza do not have the manpower to interrupt so many meetings.
The article by Bank of America’s former CEO in India also describes a wild contrast from South India, as well as how voting can be, and often is skewed.