New Delhi: Concerned over the high incidence of loan default along with "corporate manipulation and mismanagement", Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat on December 31 suggested implementation of the five Es -- excellence, efficiency, effectiveness, equity and ecology -- to refurbish the tarnished corporate image in the country.

"These five Es coupled with performance, transparency and accountability will sustain the growth of Indian companies," Shekhawat said at an award ceremony of the Institute of Company Secretaries (ICSI).

"In our country, corporates have often ignored the interest of the public on whose money they have established their industrial or business empire," he said, adding small investors are often at the receiving end of corporate manipulation and mismanagement.

"The principles of fairness, transparency, accountability and social responsibility ought to be followed by our corporates in building constructive relationship," he said after presenting the ICSI National Award for Excellence in Corporate Governance.

Shekhawat said many corporates "erroneously" feel that profit and ethical corporate management practices are incompatible. "For them wealth-making can only be promoted through unethical practices," he said adding this approach is "inherently flawed".

PTI