Chandigarh: "The Company Secretaries are well recognized professionals and they should go forward to spread their wings in the way that many more people take shelter under their wings," advised R. Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs while delivering the inaugural address at 11th National Conference of Practicing Company Secretaries on the theme 'Spread Wings to Reach New Horizons', here today at Taj Chandigarh.

"The horizon of Company Secretaries should not only be limited within its professional domain, it must also extend to people who are still not part of corporate growth," added Bandyopadhyay and further advised that it is the duty of Company Secretaries to spread this message and advise the Boards in this regard.

Speaking on the initiatives of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, he hoped that the Companies Bill will be placed in Monsoon or Winter Session of Parliament. While speaking on the Limited Liability Partnership Act, he observed that the Act provides a platform to Company Secretaries to form large firms.

In this regard he informed that a Bill to tune the Company Secretaries Act, with Limited Liability Partnership Act, has been placed in Parliament. This would help Company Secretaries to form multi dimensional, and even multi national firms, he added.

Speaking on the Voluntary Guidelines on Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility issued by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, he advised that, "The guidelines provide that if a company is not adopting for genuine reasons certain provisions of these guidelines, such companies are expected to explain the reasons for not adopting these guidelines, to their shareholders, investors and other stakeholders."

The ministry has invited views and suggestions from professional bodies, intellectuals and members of the society on these guidelines, which would be collated and the guidelines would be reviewed in the year end. In this regard, he advised the Company Secretaries to spread this message to the corporate boards.

Vinayak S Khanvalkar, President of the Institute, said in his address that, "The sustainability, efficiency and inclusive growth are today corner stone of policy process particularly in the context of growing range of economic, social, environmental and governance issues in the main stream of business and professional thinking."

"How to reach the new horizons would certainly require stronger wings and this strength would come largely from our ability to understand and act upon these prevailing forces of change and attain high value professional activities not only in India but across the globe," added President, the ICSI.
This race to the top could be best won through engagement and not exclusion. It is a matter of identifying and building on our competitive advantage. We must, therefore, play a leading role in this transformation as innovators, adopters, change agents and co-creators of value with corporates, regulators, he further added.

Anil Murarka, Vice President of the Institute in his special address said that, "Major driving force behind emerging multifaceted profile of Company Secretaries, is global aspirations of India Inc., emerging new growth oriented regulatory regime, sharp focus on compliances and good corporate governance. To sustain the growth momentum in the current business environment, professionals are required to be continuous learners. Success would be dependent on the extent to which we are able to learn, adapt and change."

Sanjay Grover, Council Member, The ICSI and Programme Director in his welcome address said that, "Company Secretaries are expected to be a repository of knowledge in all aspects of governance and new regulatory prescriptions for providing value added support to the corporates. The multifaceted profile of Company Secretaries requires them to acquire a range of new skills than ever before."

"In this scenario, it is important that the Company Secretaries are fully aware of and able to handle the complex issues such as cross border insolvency, Corporate Restructuring, governance through voluntary guidelines on CG and CSR, internal audit of stock brokers, diligence report for banks, Secretarial Audit, Efiling. More specifically Secretarial Audit in its rechristened form," he added.

C Sudhir Babu, Council Member and Chairman of Practicing Company Secretaries Committee introduced the theme of the conference.

N K Jain, Secretary & Chief Executive Officer of the Institute proposed a vote of thanks to Bandyopadhyay.