Co secys have their hands full

KOLKATA: The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) is looking to broaden the scope of company secretaries’ functional domain, not just in the country but also abroad. For this, it has taken up several initiatives that includes a review of the existing syllabus.

“People usually tend to look at the CS course as an add-on degree. But we want to drive home the fact that people completing this course can get into a host of fields like merchant banking, accounts, insurance, exports, or even IPO handling,” said Rajesh Poddar, chairman, Eastern India Regional Council, ICSI.

He added that the ICSI is currently popularising the concept by holding dialogue with various bodies. “We are in talks with the West Bengal government to make labour compliance audit mandatory for companies with more than 500 employees,” said Mr Poddar.

The ICSI has also entered agreements with several countries like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and the UK, so that company secretaries from India can practise there by just passing a few additional papers. Kenya is the latest with which talks are on in this regard.

The institute is also trying to make the existing syllabus more industry-friendly by laying greater focus on areas like company law, WTO guidelines and e-filing. “With the introduction of the MCA-21 project, IT and e-filing have become an important part of the CS curriculum.

We are also putting premium on the Secretarial Modular Training Programme,” said Ajay Agarwal, director, Rapid Learning Systems.