Company Secretary

Introduction

Company Secretary (CS) or Corporate Secretary (CS) or Secretary is the same designation in an organization. It is the senior post in a private or public sector’s company.

Company secretary deals with the legal activities of any business. The role of a company secretary is to keep the records, advice, tax returns and evaluate the legal aspects of the organization. Company secretary is a traditional positioned as the support of the board of directors and administrative staff. But now the business strategy has been changed and the role of the CS has been expanded.

The company secretary works as a traditional support to the admin and directors. The company secretary take care of corporate governance and legal matters of the organization as the additional work. A Company Secretary is responsible the administration of the organization, ensuring statutory & regulatory compliance and for ensuring the implementation of the decisions of the board of directors of the company.

The CS represents the name of the company on the legal documents and ensures that the directors are working under the compliance’s for the company. The CS also communicates with the shareholders of the company and maintains the records.

The main role of the company secretary is:

To communicate and register the shareholders of the companies and to ensure the dividend are paid, and to maintain the annual records.

Courses & Duration

Do you know how to become a Company Secretary?

The CS (Company Secretary) is a 3 years professional course equivalent to the UG degree. The CS course is conducted by the ICSE (Institute of Company Secretaries of India). The CS course is divided into three levels as the following:

• Foundation Course – 8 months
• Intermediate/Executive Course – 9 months
• Final/Professional Course – 15 months

Check Career Oriented Courses after 12th Commerce

This course is a corporate professional course. The foundation course involves the business environment, entrepreneurship, management, communication, ethics, economics and accounting.

This executive programme comprises of the company law, commercial law, tax law, general law, securities law and accounts & audit practice.

In the final level of this course, the student involves the company secretarial practices, financial & treasury management.

In the final module of the programme. The CS has the opportunity of choosing option for any one specialization like:

• Banking Law and Practice
• Capital, Commodity and Money Market
• Insurance Law and Practice
• Intellectual Property Rights – Law and Practice
• International Business-Laws and Practices

Admission

The student who had the cleared 12^th standard in any disciplines (except Fine Arts) may get the admission for CS (Company Secretary) programme. The students who have cleared the graduation can go for the direct admission in executive level.

In India, mostly colleges give admissions to students on the basis of merit list of the qualifying examination. While some other institutions also provide admissions to students through entrance examinations.

Are there any good colleges to pursue company secretary courses?

Some top colleges to pursue CS courses are listed here:

• Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU 2024)
• The Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI)
• Aligarh Muslim University (AMU 2024), Aligarh
• Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya (DAV), Indore
• National Institute of Information Technology (NIIT), Delhi
• Narsee Monjee College of Commerce and Economics, Mumbai
• Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU), Hyderabad

The students will have to undergo the following training after the completion of the course.

• SIP (Student Induction Programme) – 7 days
• Compulsory Computer Training Programme – 70 hours
• EDP (Executive Development Programme) – 8 days
• PDP (Professional Development Programme) – 25 Hours
• Training in a specialized agency – 15 days
• MSOP (Management Skills Orientation Programme) – 15 days
• Articleship Training Programme – 15 months

Career & Jobs

“Company Secretaries are highly demanded in public as well as private sectors”.

There is a bright future in the professional field of company secretary. The company secretary is one of the powered and prestigious job profiles. It is not just the same of the name of this course; a CS can be one of the members of the board of directors.

If you have better communication skills, leadership, problem solving skills and organizational skills, then you just have to gain some experience and you may be the managing director or the chairman of any organization.

You may work in the stock exchange, company affairs department, law board and various government departments.

Skills Required for Company Secretary:

• You must be really dedicated and hard working.
• You should have knowledge of legal aspects of accounting, taxation, auditing and other financial activities.
• You must have the ability to work hard with honesty and commitment.
• You should have excellent written & oral communication skills, good organization & management skills, negotiation skills etc.
• Good knowledge of business law and finance law.

Job Profiles

The names of job profiles in this career are as the following:

• Assistance to the Board of Directors
• Company Registrar
• Legal Advisor
• Corporate Policymaker
• Chief Administrative Officer
• Principal Secretary
• Corporate Planner
• Chairman
• Managing Director
• Administrative Assistant
• Administrative Secretary
• Investor Capital Market Relations
• Contents Coordinator

Some employment areas for Company Secretary (CS) are:

• Company Law Boards
• Financial Institutions
• Stock Exchange Corporate Advisory Services
• Departments of Company Affairs
• Banks
• Company Secretary Ship Consultancy Firms
• Stock Exchanges
• Financial Management

Salary

“Most of the qualified company secretaries are awarded with attractive salary packages in both sectors”.

Salary depends on the capability of the candidates or the company policy and however on the market reputation of the employer firm. The ICSI has signed the MOUs with various foreign colleges and the universities. You may go the abroad and get higher salaries.

In India, a fresher can get 3-5 lakh per annum.

“Company secretaries working in international companies earn even higher salary”.

Books & Study Materials

Here we are providing some books which have been compiled by our experts after analyzing other study materials available in the market:

• Business Communication & organization management
  by Varinder Kumar & Bodh Raj
• A Guide to Business Correspondence & Communication Skills
  by A.N.Kapoor
• Fundamental of Statistics
  by A.K.Aggarwal & Sahab Singh
• Fundamentals of Financial Accounting
  by Ashok Sehgal & Deepak Sehgal
• Fundamentals of Business Organisation & Management
  by Y.K.Bhusan
• Business Laws and Management
  by N.D.Kapoor, Dinkar Pagare
• Management Concepts and Strategies
  by J.S.Chandan
• Business Studies
  by Poonam Gandhi
• Business Laws
  by D Chandra Bose

If you have any other queries related to Company Secretary, you may leave your queries below in the comment box.