The Institute of Company Secretaries of India feels that once the Companies Act 2013 and the Secretarial Audit provisions are fully implemented, there would be a sharp rise in demand for company secretaries.

Future demand

“Currently, around 3,500 fresh company secretaries pass out every year, which more or less takes care of the present demand.  But, the need for more company secretaries will arise in the coming years,” Atul H Mehta, President of the institute, told media persons on Wednesday.

On the secretarial audit programme, he said, it was industry-friendly and was akin to regular health check up programmes conducted by companies and enterprises.

“It will bring down litigations and mitigate risk of exposure to liabilities,” he pointed out. Secretarial Audit, introduced recently in the Companies Act, is a process to check compliances made by companies under corporate and other laws, rules and regulations.

Nearly 7,000 companies come under the purview of this audit. For example, bank NPAs develop over a period of time and regular secretarial audits could prevent building up of NPAs, he said.

Centre for excellence

Mehta said the centre for excellence, being set up by the institute in Hyderabad, would be ready this year.

The centre, which will be ICSI’s second after the one in Mumbai, is being set up at a cost of ₹20 crore.