"Shareholder activism will only increase in 2015 and will help in ensuring better corporate governance practices," Association of Mutual Funds in India (AMFI) Chairman Sundeep Sikka said.

Sikka, also CEO of Reliance Mutual Fund, emphasised that small and retail investors should get a fair voice as well as representation.

"In terms of shareholder activism, mutual funds are playing a big role as custodians of small investors... It is a very good trend," he noted.

Describing shareholder activism witnessed in 2014 as a "big change", proxy advisory firm Institutional Investor Advisory Services (IiAS) said it has been quite a remarkable year.

"Shareholders are getting more engaged and participative. Companies are listening to them... Last year it (activism by shareholders) was a murmur and now it is a shout," IiAS Founder and Managing Director Amit Tandon said.

Right from setting up a new plant to paying higher executive compensation to related party deals being voted out, shareholders ruled the roost in 2014.

In a rare development in the country's corporate landscape, domestic mutual funds opposed a proposal of Suzuki Motor Corp taking over a Gujarat plant from its India unit Maruti Suzuki and selling cars made from that factory back to the Indian carmaker.

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