Shri Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, said, “The challenge before India is to figure out a way to internalise Corporate Governance. Corporate Governance is in the interests of companies as it enhances their image, acceptability and profitability.”

Shri Sriniwas said this at a Cooperation Agreement signing ceremony between the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) at the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, New Delhi today. DG & CEO, IICA & Joint Secretary, MCA Shri Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh and Mr Jun Zhang, Country Head, IFC were the signatories.

Presiding over the signing ceremony, Shri Injeti Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs said, “Good governance is the key to sustainability of any initiative, be it companies or the Government.”

He said currently India is the 6^th largest economy in the world and in the next decade India will be in the three largest economies of the world. He said that companies will compete for ratings in Corporate Governance if the Corporate Governance norms play an important role in their value.

Shri Gyaneshwar Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, MCA and DG & CEO, IICA welcomed the house and spoke on the collaborative framework of the Cooperation Agreement covering many areas. He flagged the importance of the National Voluntary Guidelines on social, environmental and economic responsibilities of business. Corporate Governance is important because there are so many companies but not enough time to track them all. Corporate governance can become the basis of indexing companies and also to ensure compliance.

 Mr Jun Zhang, Country Head, IFC, shared that India is IFC’s strongest partner in terms of investment. He also underlined the fact that Corporate Governance is the most critical factor to know if the investment is a success or a failure.

 Ms Preeti Malhotra, Member, Board of Governance, IICA, said proper implementation of the laws is the key to good Corporate Governance.

 Ms Vladislava Ryabota, Lead CG, IFC – World Bank briefed the house on IFC’s past collaborations with IICA, covering training as well as major conferences. IFC looks forward to continuing the engagement under the present agreement. She also emphasised on the need for training of board members to work as a team.

 Earlier, Dr Niraj Gupta, Head, School of Corporate Governance and Public Policy, IICA, welcomed the house. Vote of thanks was extended by Ms Geeta Singh Rathore, Chief Administrative Officer, IICA.

IICA-IFC Collaboration Framework

IICA - IFC Cooperation Agreement covers two years duration. The programme to be pursued under the agreement is committed to strengthen the corporate affairs and Corporate Governance practices in India by enhancing the capabilities of key professionals engaged in the process. The focus of the programme will be to strengthen the institution of Independent Directors, Women Directors and other Corporate Governance Professionals. The programme also aims at supporting IICA and Ministry of Corporate Affairs in instituting a Corporate Governance Index for monitoring the improvements in compliance and governance practices of public as well as private sector yearly. The indexing of the practice is likely to provide a competitive and enabling environment for constant improvements in tune with the reform process of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.

Corporate Governance strengthened through IICA IFC cooperation to build director capacity and institute a national compliance index. A two year IICA-IFC cooperation aims to strengthen corporate governance by training Independent Directors, Women Directors and governance professionals and by instituting a Corporate Governance Index for annual monitoring of compliance and governance improvements across public and private companies.