ICSI to look at smaller cities for students

To cope with the rising demand for company secretaries in the country, the Institute of Company Secretaries of India will focus on smaller cities of the country and try rope in a good numbers of students.

The reason is that the students from metros and bigger cities are turning to IT. The institute will also launch virtual classrooms for its foundation level students by November this year.

"At present there are 20,000 registered company secretaries with our institute and in the country there will be around 25,000 registered CS.

"On the other hand the growth in the corporate sector is tremendous. Around 100 new companies are being added to the list every day in Mumbai alone. So we see the growth of the sector. As per the Companies' Act all listed companies with Rs 2 crore paid up capital have to hire a company secretary. Any company which wants to enter the capital market with an IPO has to have a company secretary. All the remaining companies, having a paid up capital of Rs 1.5 crore (Rs 15 million) have to get certificate by a CS. So the demand for CS is tremendous while the availability of qualified people is less," said Vikas Khare, chairman, Western India Regional Council, ICSI.

On the reason of the dearth of manpower, Khare said, "More and more students from metros and bigger cities prefer IT courses rather than CS. So, we are concentrating on the smaller cities. In Gujarat, Rajkot and Anand are our focus areas. We will also be launching 50 more satellite chapters across the country with a minimum infrastructure by next year." Khare was in Ahmedabad to launch the 8th National Conference for CS students.

IJ Kulecha, from New Delhi, told Business Standard, "A CS' career is one of the brightest careers in India as the demand for CS is increasing by the day and the demand to rise. As of now only the multinational companies who employs company secretaries for sure. The kind of salaries CS are offered is amazing. The very starting of the CS pay is Rs 25,000 and From then on sky is the limit. I know a CS whose annual package is Rs 60 lakh per annum."

ICSI is also trying to attract more students by introducing virtual classrooms from this year. "We will be launching virtual classrooms by November this year to facilitate the students with online tutorials. Initially the virtual classrooms will be made available for the foundation students and after a few months it will be available for the intermediate level students also," Khare said.

At present there are 2,400 students in ICSI Ahmedabad chapter, 700 students in Rajkot chapter, 26,000 students in the western region and around one lakh students across the nation.