What is Company Secretary (CS)?

WHAT IS COMPANY SECRETARY (CS)?

Company Secretary Courses are on a rising demand as of recent years! Moreover, the company secretary course is a rather challenging course. Because career as a Company Secretary is not only prestigious, it is also financially rewarding and provides a high level of job satisfaction. Job satisfaction is a crucial luxury that many employees seek out to find. A career as a Company Secretary definitely provides it.

The Company Secretary is an in-house legal expert; a compliance officer of the Company; an expert in corporate laws, securities laws & capital market and corporate governance. A Company Secretary, being a multidisciplinary professional, renders services in the following areas:

• Corporate Governance and Secretarial Services
• Corporate Laws Advisory and Representation Services
• Management Services
• Financial Market Services

As is the case with every responsible people, the company secretary will often be required to take on a variety of additional administrative duties. Typically, these may include:

• Insurance
• Administration of share schemes
• Company pension scheme
• Intellectual property

HOW IMPORTANT IS A CS TO THE COMPANY?

The Cadbury Report (1993) stressed the importance of the role of the company secretary:

‘‘The company secretary has a key role to play in ensuring that board procedures are both followed and regularly reviewed. The chairman and the board will look to the company secretary for guidance on what their responsibilities are under the rules and regulations to which they are subject and on how these responsibilities should be discharged. All directors should have access to the advice and services of the company secretary and should recognize that the chairman is entitled to strong support from the company secretary in ensuring the effective functioning of the board.’’

With the increasing focus in recent years on corporate governance, the role of the company secretary has grown in importance. In many ways, the secretary is now seen as the ‘guardian’ of the company’s proper compliance with both the law and the best practice.

STAGES TO BECOME A CS:

• The students who would like to join the Course after 10+2 pass or equivalent have to undergo three stages to pursue the Company Secretaries Course i.e.:

1. Foundation Programme
2. Executive Programme
3. Professional Programme

• The students who would like to join the Course after passing the Graduation have to undergo two stages of the Company Secretaryship i.e.:

1. Executive Programme
2. Professional Programme

TOP CS ARTICLESHIP FIRMS IN INDIA:

1. Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Limited
2. Ernst &Young
3. Price Water Coopers(PWC)
4. Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdele (KPMG)
5. Cummins India Limited
6. RPG Life Sciences Limited
7. RSJ Associates
8. Godfrey Phillips India Limited

FAMOUS INDIAN PERSONALITIES WHO ARE COMPANY SECRETARIES

1. CS PreetiMalhotra: The 1^stfemale president of the ICSI and now the ED of the spice group.
2. CS ShyamAgarwal: Starting from a small district of Sikar, he has now reached the managing levels of NIRC of ICSI.
3. CS DevBajpai: He is the Executive Director, Legal and Corporate Affairs & Company Secretary of the Hindustan Unilever Limited.
4. CSJayesh Merchant: He serves as Chief Financial Officer and Company Secretary of the Asian Paints Limited and served as its Vice President of Corporate Finance.