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Company Secretary

With the rising boom in the corporate sector, there is a great demand for professionals who can display corporate credibility and transparency in managing the internal affairs of the organization. Such professionals are named as “Company Secretary”. A Company Secretary is a highly regarded position in the private sector or public sector organizations. A CS generally give advice on the legal matters of corporate organizations as well as plays a significant role in planning the goals, strategies, and policies of the company he works for.

Career as Company Secretary not only offers financially gratifying and prestigious profession but also provides a high-profile satisfactory job at the same time. This profile is strictly designated for stalwart individuals who possess the potential to pay scrupulous attention to the detail. Company secretaries must have the skills to communicate effectively with other department members to ensure that the corporation practices are legal and financially acceptable. They are highly organized people who enjoy working with figures and their job is to perform best out of their ability and expertise.

Why to be a CS?

A Company Secretary is an official representative of any organization whose main function is to communicate with shareholders, owners, and directors to carry out the selected policies by ensuring that the company is working according to the laws and regulations. The company secretary is responsible for the overall systemic administration of a corporation and is one of the key members of the corporate sector. He/She plays an indispensable role in the corporate world ensuring effective coordination and communication among various departments.

Their work generally includes preparing large amounts of data collected from several departments of the organization. The company secretaries must adopt the responsibilities for supervising different aspects of the daily actions of a company, including the safety of employees, their insurance coverage, corporate social responsibility programs, accounting, tax-related matters and much more.

A CS works as:

➣ An in-house legal professional; a compliance officer of any Company.

➣ An expert of corporate laws, securities laws, capital market and corporate governance

➣ A chief advisor to the board of directories on legal practices of corporate governance

➣ Responsible for all regulatory docility of the company

➣ Corporate planner and a strategic manager

He / She has a major role in bringing transparency in company governance affairs and ensuring that the company works with all legal codes. In India, most Company secretaries generally work for specific individual corporations.

Eligibility Criteria for becoming a Company Secretary-

Becoming a Company Secretary means upholding thousands of sacrifices. Qualifying this high-profile position will let you hold fate in your hands. To achieve such a dignified position, one needs to go through the directed eligibility criteria:

• For the basic level Foundation course towards becoming a Company Secretary is to pass 10+2 level or an equivalent examination from any recognized board.
• There are no restraints on the minimum percentage of marks secured by aspiring candidates in Senior Secondary School.  
• Candidates who are appearing for class 12th examination are eligible with the evidence of passing the examination within 6 months.
• There is no specific restriction on the age of the candidates to pursue a Company Secretary course.
• Candidates, less than 17 years of age can freely apply for the Intermediate course.

Skill Sets Required:-

➢ Expertise for Company law

➢Exemplary Communication Skills

➢ Compliance

➢ Time Management & Multi-Tasking

➢ Meticulous Planning

➢Good knowledge of the interpretation of the law

➢ Impeccable understanding of business.

➢ Good to excellent communication skills.

➢ Networking skills.

➢ Interpersonal skills.

➢ Impeccable understanding of  business

➢ In-depth knowledge of finance

➢ Continuous learning, improvement, and development

➢Readiness to work for long hours.

How to become a Company Secretary?

Before enrolling admission in CS course, candidates have to register themselves at Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) to become a certified Company Secretary. ICSI is the statutory professional body in India that promotes, regulates, develops, and organizes the profession of CS in India. No other organization in India is authorized by law to grant the coveted Company Secretary certification.

Candidates are required to pursue a three-year CS course offered by ISCI. So, to accomplish the dream of becoming a professional company secretary in India, individuals must go through the following phases of examination after 10+2 conducted by the ICSI. These are as follows:

➢ The Foundation Course

➢ The Intermediate Course

➢The Final Course

1. The Foundation Course: The first step towards achieving this coveted position is the foundation course. The foundation course has a duration of eight months and can be pursued after completing intermediate successfully. Candidates from any stream including Arts, Science or Commerce stream are eligible for this course. This esteemed course offered by ISCI is a combination of postal education and optional coaching classes. The course comprises of four subjects in it:

➢ Business Environment & Entrepreneurship,

➢ Business Management,

➢ Ethics and Communication,

➢ Business Economics and Fundamentals of Accounting & Auditing

2. The Intermediate Course: The second step for Company Secretary (CS) is to pursue an Intermediate Course. It has a ten-month duration programme and can be studied after clearing the foundation course. One cannot enter the Intermediate course until or unless he passes the foundation course. This course is only available for graduates aspirants of all streams except Fine Arts and follow two modules for conducting the exam:

Module I:

• Company Law
• Cost & Management Accounting
• Economic & Commercial Laws
• Tax Laws and Practice

Module II:

• Company Accounts and Auditing Practices
• Capital Markets and Securities Laws
• Industrial, Labour and General Law

3. The Final Course: This is the last step but not the least towards becoming a CS. The final course is a ten-month duration programme which is pursued after passing the intermediate course. The examinations is generally conducted twice in a year,i.e. In the month of June and December. The examination is conducted in three modules containing the following subjects:

Module I:

• Advanced Company Law and Practice (FACLP)
• Secretarial Practice relating to Economic Laws and Drafting and Conveyancing (FSPELDC)
• Secretarial Management and Systems Audit (FSMSA)

Module II:

• Financial, Treasury and Forex Management (FFTFM)
• Corporate Restructuring-Law and Practice (FCRLP)
• Banking and Insurance-Law and Practice (FBILP)

Module III:

• WTO-International Trade, Joint Ventures and Foreign Collaborations (FWTO)
• Direct and Indirect Taxation-Law and Practice (FDITLP)
• Human Resource Management and Industrial Relations (FHRMIR)

4. Undergo Training: After qualifying the above-mentioned courses, individuals have to undergo practical management training of 15 months in Companies sponsored by the ICSI.  Candidates are required to attend this training session to become a certified member of the Institute of the Company Secretaries of India (ICSI). After taking the proper training, they’ll be regarded as a Professional Member of the ICSI and can use the letters  Associate Company Secretary (ACS) after their names.

Pros of becoming Company Secretary:

Being a company secretary is not a piece of cake and getting recruited to the top-notched organizations will be like a dream come true. This dignified designation carries certain advantages and obviously not, after all, is achieved by years of study and diligence. These advantages are as follows:

➢ A highly reputed and dignified job

➢ Good remuneration package

➢ Perks and amenities

➢ The unremitting influx of knowledge

➢Travelling opportunities

➥ The job profile and scope of CS is a promising and everlasting with the constant growth and hefty remuneration that it provides gives more flexibility for an individual to improve. Career in Company Secretary offers lucrative employment opportunities in the field of the private sector, public sector, banks, stock exchange, law firms, and other financial institutions. The Company Secretary works generally works as universal support for the administrative block of the organization as well as take care of corporate governance and successful execution of the decisions.

In India, some qualified, experienced and adept company secretaries work on a freelance basis and take contracts for short terms by various companies. There is a large purview of CS as the upcoming new challenges in business can only be shouldered by highly skilled and qualified professionals.

Area of Employment:-

• Autonomous advisory capacity
• Company Secretary firms
• Administrators in business firms
• Department of Company Affairs
• Firms listed on the stock market
• Financial Advisor
• Experts in banks in the fields of Finance, Accounts, Law and Merchant Banking
• An organization whose affairs are conducted by boards, councils and other corporate structures such as companies, cooperative societies, trusts, associations, federations, unions, commissions, board etc.
• As experts to the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America
• Self- employment (practice)
• Research

➥ With the demanding job of CS in the corporate world, the remuneration for the experienced and hardworking person has increased a lot in the market. In India, a fresher CS can expect his monthly starting salary between Rs. 28,000 and Rs. 40,000 and even more depending on the abilities he possesses. An experienced and renowned employer of any company can attain the salary as a company secretary up to Rs. 100,000 per month. Company secretaries usually earn several non-monetary benefits including holidays with compensation, insurance, credit access for housing and transport as well as sick leaves.