After the 12th standard to pursue the company secretary course, the students must start with the CSEET exam. It takes three years of minimum time to complete ACS. In modern days, the accountancy job gets complete by software applications. The challenging job lies in the consultation of auditing, company law, and decision making. All these roles that software fails to do are in the professional course of CA, ACS, and CMA. Company secretary professionals can work with listed companies, consultancy companies, and stock exchanges. 12th standard is like the basic-level foundation and after completing 12th professional course is essential for students.
For a bright student, the recommendation from an academic expert is the ACS course. The ICSI conducts the CSEET exam four times a year. All the questions are objective type questions. Only students with high confidence can become a company secretary. CSEET program duration is eight months. CSEET exam has four core subjects. The executive-level exam has two modules, and the professional level exam has three modules. These professionals can write a Ph.D.also. Let me see the value of the ACS course and how difficult it is to become a company secretary.
The changing role of the company secretary
The company secretary is the person who is referred to as the “go-to” person by the board of directors. The events influence the finance of the company. And these influences need to be presented by the company secretary as per the SEBI of 1934. The reports of the company, voting protocols, and meetings must follow the stipulations precisely. In the financial act of 2020, there are amendments to clause (52) about the meaning of the listed company. These amendments bring changes to company operations. Section 26(9) is about the matters in the prospectus. The share capital sub-clause section 62 is about the declination of the offer with less than fifteen days. All these amendments and the bills awaiting the financial changes need to be the main focus of the company secretary. So, the company secretary’s role is to respect the wealth creators of India and be friendly to the policies of the promoter. The history and amendments of the laws are the main focus of the company secretary. They are in the position of comprehending the new laws from the government and communicating the same with business information to the board of directors. They also take care of the operations related to the share issue such as dividend payment, share transfers and issue of share certificates, and share allotment. The knowledge of the company secretary must be competitive.
The economic development in the financial services sector makes the company adhere to the laws for the affairs of the company. RBI released a series of codes for corporate governance to maintain a high standard in the pre-approval functions of the companies. The new standards are outsourced by financial services to manage the tasks. And these operations of new laws are expected to be under the functions of the company secretary. The company secretary job is now evolving with best practice.
The companies act amendments in the light of pandemic:
The ministry of corporate affairs has announced amendments in the light of pandemic through notifications, circulars, and FAQs. The meetings for the approval of financial statements, prospectus, board’s report, consolidated financial statement, amalgamation, takeover, merger, demerger, and acquisition can be done through audio-visual or video conferencing. The CSR funds may be used for Covid-19 activities like sanitation, healthcare, disaster management, and promotion of healthcare. In these unprecedented difficult times, the amendments are by the operations of the companies. This new norm of the MCA may continue even after the pandemic. The company secretaries must have detailed knowledge about these amendments to implement an informed decision.
ACS: a worth doing the course for a successful career
The company secretary handles the legal activities, secretarial operations, and implements the decisions taken by the board of directors as per the business requirement. When learning ACS, the focused area of study is with SEBI ACT, FEMA act, Amendments, past question papers, Company act, and amendments. The mobile apps are user friendly for CS students. Some of the apps like CS touch, the companies act app, and the CS-cart India app makes the learning platform easy. Organize the notes to remember the main points, revise the chapters which you find as difficult as many times as you can, and schedule learning with honest efforts.
How difficult is it to become a company secretary?
Law is a dynamic subject like computer science subject. Every day new products are invented in the stream of computer science. Similar to that, every year accounting for the economic fluctuations, the government introduces new by-laws to manage the company and society. Studious students find it easy to clear the ACS exam. The passion for checking the documents and communicating with legal authorities is crucial. If there is no passion, then it is difficult for the fresh company secretary to exhibit the performance. So, the learning capacity and passion for the job decide about your profession. Bear in mind that nothing comes easy. After completing the 12th standard, if you dream high-level position, then the aspirants will live their dream of becoming an efficient company secretary.
