Joining the Dots between CS & Law

Rendezvous

Joining the Dots between CS & Law

Lex Witness Bureau | October 2015

Lex Witness interviews the Chairman, CS Rishikesh Gagan Vyas of the ICSI-WIRC regarding the evolving roles of CS professionals in India.

Briefly tell us about your role as the Chairman of The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Western India Regional Council (ICSI-WIRC).

The jurisdiction of WIRC of ICSI extends to Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Goa and Daman & Diu. It is having around 14000 members and 4.5 lakhs students. The programs have to be conducted on timely basis for the betterment of the students and members. At the same time it also has to be ensured that the ICSI interacts with various regulators and other stake holders for the work related to CS profession.

As per you, what is the way forward vision 2025 for the CS profession?

In short it is Knowledge Skills Visibility. More emphasis is on skill development like Secretarial Audit, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT), Capital Market etc. CS has to be a value creator ensuring that the compliance is not a cost but a value addition.It has to be ensured that CS are viewed as Global Leader in the field of Corporate Governance and Corporate Compliance Mechanism and are seen as high caliber professionals who can deliver to the needs of the corporates. In the coming decade advisory and representative services have the biggest potentialities forthe CS to contribute towards Nation Building.

What are some of the challenges that the CS profession faces in the current environment, and what are their solutions?

The biggest challenge is the mindset of the general societytowards compliance. The need of hours is to create an awareness especially for small sized business & SMEs on the importance of compliance and awareness to make them aware that compliance is not a cost but a value addition. The government may frame a compliance framework wherein those corporate entities are awarded who are compliant and there is a huge fiscal burden on those entities who are not compliant.

How do you see the role of CS professionals has been changing specially keeping in mind the rising importance of Legal & Compliance as a function?

In the current time, CS is in the managerial role which has its requirements to strategies his plans towards legal and compliance. Having said that the type of penalties are involved which are rounding up in in Lakhs and Crores, CS requires to advise, monitor, strategies and control on the entire legal and compliance functionaries of any organization. Nowadays CS has to be proactive and has to be ready with the changes thrown upon even so changing laws. Thus he has to be well alert about the future changes and its overall impact on business.

About Lex Witness

Lex Witness Bureau

The LW Bureau is a seasoned mix of legal correspondents, authors and analysts who bring together a very well researched set of articles for your mighty readership. These articles are not necessarily the views of the Bureau itself but prove to be thought provoking and lead to discussions amongst all of us. Have an interesting read through.