Govt factory to churn out corporate law experts

NEW DELHI: The government has introduced a new central civil services cadre called the Indian Corporate Law Services (ICLS) to create an army of experts who would be involved in corporate law making and its enforcement in the country. This gives a new service option to those who qualify the toughest entrance test to get into government service.

The government would train the officers at the newly-set up Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA),
a policy think tank, before placing them in various offices of the ministry of corporate affairs.

The recruits will be trained in subjects like management, law, accounting, business finance and economics before being deputed in various agencies under the ministry. Now the ministry gets officers through Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) examinations. UPSC recruits people from the field of law, chartered accounting and cost auditing.

Even though senior positions in the ministry are held by officers of the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) cadre, junior or mid-level officers involved in ground-level enforcement, investigation and compliance are often short of sharp understanding and training.

���We are not getting good officers at every level of our operations. Appointment of officers through ICLS will ensure there is a regular set of quality officers,��� a senior official in the ministry of corporate affairs, who did not wish to be named, told ET.

He said that officers recruited through the present selection processes are often not the best of the lot as the compensation which the government provides is lesser than what the corporate sector offers. The present move will facilitate capacity-building within the ministry. Officers of the ICLS will be trained at the IICA, a government-funded body which will act as a think-tank for the government.