New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in early October emphasized on the need for maintaining high standards of corporate good governance among professionals in the sphere of company secretaries. Addressing the 55th Foundation Day of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) in the national Capital, Sitharaman said that company secretaries can bring in corporate good governance to ensure greater professionalism in their sphere and erase the memories of not so good corporate governance of earlier times (indirectly referring to the UPA regime).

She listed various initiatives by the government which have led to reforms in the corporate sector like decriminalizing minor offences and doing away with archaic norms and removal of 39,000 unnecessary compliances.

Also 1,500 archaic laws have been done away with, the Finance Minister informed the gathering, in the presence of President Droupadi Murmu. “Since 2014, owing to the kind of FDI reforms we have undertaken, India has received FDI worth $230 billion in the last three financial years,” she added, informing that most of these FDIs came through investments in physical infrastructure after removal of logistic bottlenecks.

Sitharaman commended the ICSI for waiving off the fee for company secretary course for Agniveers, armed forces personnel, paramilitary personnel and families of martyrs, thus facilitating their registration in them. The Finance Minister also appreciated the fact that company secretary professionals were increasingly moving towards smaller cities and towns in spreading their expertise.