ICSI Introduces New Initiatives for its Students & Members for 2014-15

Chandigarh, March 22, 2014: The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), established by an Act of Parliament in 1980, is the country’s premier regulatory body for the CS profession. Top ICSI office bearers, including newly elected President of ICSI, CS R Sridharan and Vice-President of ICSI, CS Vikas Y Khare, were in the city for an introductory meeting with their Northern India Region counterparts at Hotel Shivalik View, Chandigarh.  
CS R.Sridharan, President of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI)   interacted with reporters on the sidelines of the meeting.
Apart from the forthcoming syllabus revision, Sridharan announced the ICSI plan to introduce the ICSI Computer Based Examination (CBE) for its Foundation-level course which is  offered to Std. XII pass students/ appearing students, and an Open Book Examination (OBE) system in elective subjects in module III of the CS Professional Programme from June 1 this year.
The CS Professional Programme offers five elective subjects in module III, viz. Banking Law and Practice; Capital, Commodity and Money markets; Insurance Law and Practice; Intellectual Property Rights Law and Practice; and International Business Laws and Practice.  A student has to opt for only one of these five subjects as per his/her interest.
“The OBE will also make candidates use their study material, class notes, textbooks bare acts and other relevant papers while attempting their answers, as per the requirement of questions.  The emphasis would be on assessing the students’ understanding of the subject , application of mind rather than the ability to  memorise large text or rules of law”, added Sridharan.
“The OBE is  also aimed at developing skills of creative thinking, problem solving and decision making at professional level course and to test analytical ability, understanding of facts, concepts and mastery to apply the same”, he added.
While speaking on Companies Act, 2013, Sridharan informed that,”The crucial role that a CS plays in a company can be gauged by the fact that the Companies Act, 2013 recognises Company Secretaries as a “Key Managerial Personnel” along with the Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director / Manager, whole-time director and Chief Financial Officer (section 203). Being Key Managerial Personnel, Company Secretary is required to be mandatorily appointed in every company belonging to such class or classes of companies as may be prescribed.
Also the duties of Company Secretaries under the Companies Act, 2013 have been substantially enhanced and they are required to advise the Board of Director on adoption of good governance practices in the Company on the role and responsibility of Directors. They are also recognized as the Chief Compliance Officer of the Company as they have to report to the Board about the Compliance of all laws by the Company. The Act also empowers Company Secretaries to be appointed as Administrator, Company Liquidators, Technical Member of National Company Law Tribunal and have also been assigned duty to report fraud. As a Governance Professional a Company Secretary is required to strike a balance among conflicting demands and rising expectations of Stakeholders.
The introduction of Secretarial Audit of Non-Financial Information and the Secretarial Standards of ICSI have been landmark recognitions of the profession of Company Secretaries, where Company Secretaries will now have to assume enlarged roles and don the roles as Governance Professionals. President ICSI, said that ,”The institute will be doing a Nationwide Capacity Building exercises among the existing professionals and Members to meet the requirements of the enhanced and elevated position of CS in the New company Law.
Senior ICSI office-bearers, including Secretary ICSI, CS M.S. Sahoo, Chief Executive CS Sutanu Sinha, Director (PR & Coordination cell) CS Alka Kapoor, Northern Region Chairman  CS Shyam Agrawal and Chandigarh Chapter Chairman CS K .V.Singhal, were also  present.