The Hindu : National : Institute of company secretaries to revise syllabus

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Mar 11, 2006

National

National

Institute of company secretaries to revise syllabus

Staff Reporter

e-learning, certificate courses on the anvil

CHENNAI : The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) anticipates the demand for company secretaries and their role to increase significantly with the growing emphasis on corporate governance and globalisation of business.

Keeping this in mind it has decided to revise the course syllabus, introduce e-learning programme and initiate measures to woo candidates from semi-urban cities and small towns.

Led by its president H.M. Choraria, the ICSI leaders told presspersons here on Friday that it had also decided to introduce a post membership qualification course in corporate governance for the professionals by mid-2006. Several certificate courses, including those in IPO and derivatives, would also be launched.

While he said that the syllabus was being revised to be "in tune with today's requirement," ICSI vice-president Preeti Malhotra said the e-learning programme, to be launched this year, would impart training through virtual classrooms.

The secretary of the Institute N.K. Jain, said around 1.25 lakh students were at present pursuing the courses. Of 19,000 members, about 4,000 were practising company secretaries and the rest employed full time in companies.

Detailing other initiatives of the Institute, Mr. Choraria said it would soon submit a model listing agreement for companies, drafted in consultation with the National and Bombay stock exchanges, to the Securities and Exchange Board of India. Apart from focussing on the debt instruments , the emphasis of the model agreement was on certification of the companies on all clauses by the professionals.

The Institute was also in favour of the government empowering the practising professionals to conduct labour law compliance audit and certify the companies on this count. Towards this, it had submitted a proposal to the Union Labour Ministry and planned to conduct a national seminar in New Delhi next month.

Ms. Malhotra said the new Company Law, expected to be tabled in the Parliament in the ongoing session and with self-regulation being one of its cornerstone, would open up new opportunities for the professionals. The opportunities were bound to increase with the anticipated setting of mega and multi-disciplinary firms after the legislation on limited liability partnership firms takes shape.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail