Become a role model for corporate governance: President asks company secretaries

Addressing 55th Foundation Day celebrations organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), Murmu said India is progressing towards becoming a leading nation.

New Delhi: President Droupadi Murmu on Wednesday urged the company secretaries to help India become a role model for good corporate governance and ensure compliance of laws for promoting business and investment.

Addressing 55th Foundation Day celebrations organised by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI), Murmu said India is progressing towards becoming a leading nation.

---

In such scenario, she said, it becomes more important that our professionals are not only qualified and competent, but also courageous and creative.

The future of India’s corporate governance depends on willpower and actions of company secretaries, she said, adding that they can make India a role model of ‘Good Corporate Governance’ as well as of ‘Good Governance’.

Therefore, she said, your deeds should be such that it could established India on the global map.

ICSI is a 55 years old organisation with about 71,000 members and nearly 2.5 lakh students are all over the country.

She urged company secretaries to focus on sustainable and inclusive aspects.

Observing that ethics in business is more important that business ethics, she said, company secretaries should ensure compliance of laws for promoting business and investment.

As a vigilant watchdog of corporate governance, she said, it is your duty to protect the laws related to business promotion and investment.

“Company secretaries should remember that their loyalty is not only to perform the legal work as an officer or professional of a company, but their duty is also towards every citizen of the country who has been left behind in the developmental journey,” she said.

She emphasised that the role of the corporate world in managing resources should be that of trusteeship.

Invoking Gandhiji’s Talisman, she said, recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen, and ask yourself, if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him and move forward on the path of good corporate governance with the objective human values.

The president said that three sins out of seven sins mentioned by Gandhiji are – wealth without work; knowledge without character; and commerce without ethics. She stated that the lessons related to these three sins should always be guiding lights for company secretaries.