Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) is the only regulatory body that manages the training and professional execution of Companies Secretaries in India. Authorized by the government of India, the organization was set up in India after the Company Secretary Act 1980 passed by the Parliament of India.
Institute is known to render top-notch education and maintain the standards of the profession by setting up justified norms to be followed by every Company Secretary (CS) in India. So far there are 62,000 members and around 3.5 lakh students associated with ICSI.
Due to the nationwide lockdown announced to stop the spread of COVID-19 in India, all the renowned institutions are now taking up online seminars or we can call it ‘webinars’. ICSI ensures that all the physical meetings or seminars will turn into webinars.
Talking about the official website of ICSI, the site retains a lot of quality information that is helpful for every member or student associated with it. Every individual associated with the website must have the knowledge but due to the normal routine, we are not able to access the website. So this is the correct time to gain a little extra knowledge given by ICSI on its portal that will help you go far ahead in your professional career.
In this write-up we are going to talk about some useful content available on the official page of ICSI:
Peer Review – Introduction, Objectives, Bbasic Guidelines
The council of ICSI came into existence under Companies Secretary Act, 1980 with the purpose of executing the norms assigned to the institute under section 15 of Companies Act.
The council thereon introduced the guidelines for Peer Review with the aim to enhance the quality of the professional services given by all the practicing CS.
Peer Review is the process of evaluating the documents, statements, reports, work and performance of the practicing CS by other CS so that the overall standards of the profession are maintained and are not compromised.
Objectives
- Ensuring that the PCS duly abides by the technical standards laid down by the institute.
- Enhancing the documentation systems and reconciling if any error so that the quality of their attestation services is maintained.
- To keep a check that the amended or updated norms are duly followed by all the PCS from time to time.
- After reviewing the attestation services rendered by the PCS under Peer Review their performance is duly monitored and also the areas where guidance is needed.
Guidelines
There are guidelines issued by the council in order to set a code of conduct while performing Peer Review
Guidelines shall apply under the following cases:
- If peer review is requested
- If peer review is mandated.
- If peer review is conducted.
READ ALSO : Read Frequently Asked Questions FAQ on CS course in India
Guidelines to enhance the quality of Attestation Services given by PCS:
- To enforce the appropriate system by ensuring the quality of the attestation services and help the members to work as ICSI wants them to do.
- Helping the PCS related to the applicability of the statutory powers.
- Prescribe the scope of peer review and procedures related to adopting the provisions while conducting the peer review.
- What code of conduct members should follow while conducting the peer review?
- Related to Practicing Company Secretaries
- There is a separate webpage for Practicing Company Secretary under the name ICSI PCS PORTAL. Link https://pcs.icsi.edu/. The page has the entire list of guidelines related to attestation services, certification services, peer review board, queries related to COP, guidelines on Dress code for PCS, etc.
- A complete directory on the skills that a PCS must possess and also state wise list of the fields and Qualified PCS.
- The entire list of duties and responsibilities that are supposed to be taken up by PCS as per ICSI. link https://www.icsi.edu/. member/cs-practice/services/
- FAQs related to Programme Credit Hours for PCS and members. Also, the guidelines related to peer review for Practicing Company Secretaries (PCS).
- FAQs solving queries related to UDIN, log in for generation of UDIN.
Related to the Members –
- Several insurance policies described. link: http://149.129.135.109/icsi/.
- An E-library for members. Members can subscribe to CLA online from ICSI. This will help the members have more knowledge and help them if they are stuck in any compliance related to their profession. Link: https://claonline.in/icsi/register.aspx
- Company Secretary – a widely acclaimed corporate journal that is distributed to all the members of ICSI. It is available free of cost and it can be accessed online by just clicking on the link: https://www.icsi.edu/journals-bulletins/chartered-secretary/
Related to the students –
- Digital Lectures – Arrangement for Video lectures in every classroom that is used for teaching the students. Lectures are also uploaded at the LMS platform of the institute. Commerce, management and law students are invited to attend the sessions and know about the CS course and its scope. A session was held on 13 Feb 2020 covering “Introduction to Company Law”.
- Study Materials (Professional and Executive levels) – Link https://www.icsi.edu/student/study-material-os/.
E-journals for students of both levels. For students who are pursuing a CS Foundation course, the e-journal is available to them on the institute’s website. Link: https://www.icsi. edu/e-journals/
- Monthly updates – To keep the students updated and educate them on a real-time basis, ICSI has monthly updates (these are subject-wise and chapter-wise updates). Link: https://www.icsi.edu/student/subjectwisemonthly-updates/
- Guidelines answer on the academic portal – Guideline answers to previous sessions questions that will help the students. It had charges earlier, now it is uploaded on the ICSI Academic Portal and can be accessed anytime free of cost. Link https://www.icsi.edu/student/academicportal/guideline-answers/. Year-wise and module wise guideline answers are available from June 2015 to December 2019.
- GurukulOnline Learning Solutions (GOLS) – Education through the internet. This is the scheme that facilitates all the registered ICSI students (Foundation, Executive and Professional Program). All the students in the country as well as from the rural and semi-urban areas of other countries can avail of this study facility (24×7) as it has a global reach. The portal enables the students to interact live and have discussions.
- mTOP for e-learning (Mobile App) – e-learning is now accessible anytime anywhere via the mobile app mTOP. The app is available for both devices (Android and IOS). you need to download the app for which you need to click on the link://stimulate.icsi.edu/.
Several videos helping the students with an explanation of various services given by ICSI are uploaded on YouTube. To watch please click on the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sEhGbzgxWpc
