“Every professional needs to be committed and bring a total professional approach in this period of non-corrupt political atmosphere in India,” said Dr. Satyapal Singh, Union Minister of State – HRD (Higher Education), while lauding the efforts put in by the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) in taking up the responsibility of educating the nation on various dynamics of the financial sector in India.

The Minister was speaking during the inauguration of the ICSI Golden Jubilee Year National Conference of Practising Company Secretaries (19th Edition) on the theme “PCS- A Value Driven Professional” in Mumbai today.

Recalling Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s words of “getting rid of poverty, unhygiene, crime and corruption, casteism and communalism by 2022,” the Minister pointed out that the ICSI’s motto highlighted and practiced these words where the Indian Government’s laws stood against black money, corruption against which “Enactment, Execution and Enforcement” were needed.

Emphasizing three core values in public life – ‘Confidence’ (“A half-baked professional cannot be confident”), “Competence’(“If you are competent, corruption will not grow,”) and “Communication’ (“communication is needed to convince your boss or client”), he said there are three types of communicators: Good ones, Better (one who hypnotizes the audience through speech) and Best (one who masters the audience).

Urging the Company Secretaries to become leaders in their trade, the Minister said “God has been kind to us by giving us the faculty of speech.” He then narrated the story of the first Mauryan Emperor Chandragupta being advised by his Chief Advisor about “the Base of the Crown being Speech – not the Head.”

Describing company secretaries as important Gatekeepers of good governance, Ajay Tyagi, SEBI Chairman, said they should be highlighting corporate governance with ethical issues at its core and also supplementing it through regulatory efforts. SEBI expected such compliance from company secretaries through appointing a Compliance official in this regard, he said, adding that “where finance and corporate sectors are concerned, we are living in exciting times.”

Makarand Lele, President, ICSI, while defining Mumbai as the land of the “Bears, Bulls and Bollywood where dreams began or ended,” noted that the profession of company secretaries never “shied” from sharing knowledge or business opportunities. The two-day ICSI conference would focus on addressing subjects like RERA, GST, DTC and Internal Audit, Doing Business outside India, Capital Market reforms etc, he added.

Highlighting the company secretary’s significance in nation-building and changing corporate profile and dynamics, another speaker said new ‘vistas’ had opened where recent developments have put their practice in a spotlight never seen before.