Corporate affairs school on the anvil

The Ministry of Company Affairs, now known as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, plans to set up an Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA). Apart from training officials, the institute will also work as a think-tank for the ministry.

"We look forward to a very meaningful participation of the corporate leadership and professionals through this platform," said Prem Chand Gupta, minister of state (independent charge) for corporate affairs. The Planning Commission has allocated Rs 47 crore, in the current fiscal, for the IICA.

"The IICA is a plan scheme of the ministry, which will become operational during the Eleventh Five-Year Plan. The commission has allocated Rs 211 crore for the institute during the Plan period," a ministry source told Business Standard.

A high-level group, headed by the Corporate Affairs Ministry Secretary Anurag Goel, was looking into finalising the management and operation structure, the source added.

The ministry has invited applications from various national and international consultants for the formation of the IICA.

The consultants will have to make a detailed project report which will later be submitted to the Expenditure Finance Committee. The committee will take the final call on the consultants' recommendation pertaining to structure, functions and location of the institute.

The name of the ministry was changed through a presidential notification on May 9, amending the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961.

According to a ministry official, the change was necessary because the focus of the ministry was no longer limited to the administration of companies but it had increasingly acquired an all-inclusive role of addressing a wide sweep of functions like corporate governance reforms and the emerging legal framework.