Centre trains focus on corporate affairs school
With over 8 lakh companies incorporated in the country and the body corporate becoming the most important vehicle for even erstwhile government functions, plans are afoot to set up a national institute for corporate law and governance- the Indian ...
By KG Narendranath, TNN |
NEW DELHI: With over 8 lakh companies incorporated in the country and the body corporate becoming the most important vehicle for even erstwhile government functions, plans are afoot to set up a national institute for corporate law and governance- the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) in the Capital.
As per a proposal mooted by the ministry of company affairs, the IICA will work with the objective of providing institutional support to corporates and their regulators in a wide gamut of subjects ��� economic and financial matters, accounting and auditing standards, use of technologies, knowledge management and (regulatory) delivery systems.
The Planning Commission has agreed to allocate Rs 211 crore for its establishment cost during the 11th Plan, senior officials said. The ministry will now move the expenditure finance committee and the cabinet for further approvals, the officials added.
The ministry will soon form a high-level committee comprising stakeholders in the government, industry, academia and professional circles to prepare a detailed blueprint. The idea is that the government will bear the initial establishment cost and the institute will eventually be run in the public-private partnership mode.
IICA will have a core faculty of its own while it will also benefit from the knowledge pool in the existing Indian varsities and institutes in specific areas. It will network closely with foreign institutions like the George Washington University Law School.
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While the domestic institutes like IIMs, IITs will be represented in the management council of IICA, the foreign institutes��� partnership will be purely functional. IICA���s mandate will be to provide training to the Indian Company Law Service officials as also corporate functionaries including directors and help them upgrade their knowledge and skill levels in tune with the rapidly globalising world, the sources said. In due course, the IICA might also commence graduation, post-graduation courses in the corporate law and governance. The government also aims at reinforcing the governance/regulatory delivery and enforcement systems regarding the corporate sector with the aid of the skills to be created in IICA.
There is obviously scope for improvement in the current system of Registrars of Companies and the Official Liquidators. The sources, however, made it clear that the IICA would not in anyway be in conflict with the domains of other government agencies and regulators, while it would squarely deal with a specific area left largely unattended.
There is also a proposal from the Commonwealth Secretariat which the company affairs ministry is seriously considering in this context, as per which IICA would function as one of the centres of excellence in corporate law and governance for professionals from scores of commonwealth countries. The proposal came up during company affairs minister Prem Chand Gupta���s recent visit to UK.
It is reckoned that with domestic laws in relation to corporate sector, Companies Act, Competition Act, being revamped and new ones being created, the proposed Limited Liability Partnership Act, the proposed institute will play an essentially complementary role in the globalisation of corporate practices and regulation in India.
The high-level committee to dot the blueprint of IICA will consist of functionaries from the ministries of finance and law, Sebi and RBI, nominees of IITs, IIMs, Indian Law Schools, the institutes of chartered accountants, company secretaries, cost and work accountants and also apex industry bodies.
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