ICSI Expands Global Reach: New Centers in Hong Kong, Japan, South Korea

Kolkata, Jul 19 (PTI) The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), the professional body set up for company secretaries in the country, plans to set up three more overseas centres in the near future, its president B Narasimhan said on Friday.

The proposed three overseas centres of ICSI are to be opened in Hong Kong, Japan and South Korea, he told reporters.

The institute has six overseas centres in UAE, US, UK, Singapore, Australia and Canada.

Narasimhan said that the new overseas centres in the three places are being planned on the basis of the strength of ICSI members in these countries.

"These centres will augment professional opportunities for the ICSI members, besides assisting and facilitating practical training for students and conducting examinations in these countries," Narasimhan said.

He said ICSI is laying great thrust on companies to become ESG (environmental, social and governance) compliant in the coming days.

ICSI has already added two new subjects to its curriculum, ESG and artificial intelligence (AI), he said.

"ESG is the need of the hour. It has been made mandatory by SEBI to submit business responsibility and sustainability reporting (BRSR) for the top 1000 companies in terms of market capitalisation. These companies are required to disclose their ESG performance along with the annual reports," he said.

Narasimhan said companies which are ESG compliant will get noticed by foreign investors.

"Foreign investors will enquire whether the Indian company in which they plan to invest are ESG compliant. The 'stewardship code' for institutional investors is still in its infancy in the country and gives immense scope for company secretary professionals to expand their scope of practice," he said.

He said that there is a huge dearth of company professionals in the country with only 70,000 members, out of which 14,000 are practising. PTI dc