Beginning today, all letters posted by the Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) this week will carry a special sticker that ‘celebrates corporate week’ on its envelopes. Similarly, all hoardings that will come up on the premises of ICWAI’s 95 regional councils and chapters across the country will call for the celebration of the country’s first ‘corporate week’.
The inaugural edition of India’s ‘corporate week’ is on track, as autonomous bodies such as the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) and the Institute of Companies Secretaries of India (ICSI) are all treading the ICWAI path, with more or less the same vigour.
It’s not just the professional bodies. Corporate India has also joined the celebrations through the big three industry chambers – the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci) and the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) by scheduling conferences that are mostly confined to the metros and bigger cities during the week.
| DURING CORPORATE WEEK... |
| * ICWAI: 45 workshops and seminars in smaller cities and towns on the common theme of ‘Corporate sector & inclusive growth’ |
| * ICSI: 40 investor awareness programmes in small towns on various matters concerning stock market investments |
| * CII: 27 events on corporate governance, including National Corporate Governance Summit, Cost Summit, Quality Summit and meets on Business Processes and Manufacturing Excellence |
| * Ficci: FICCI-Aditya Birla CSR Centre to spearhead the events. Seminars & presentation of CSR case studies in major cities, discussions on voluntary CSR guidelines for the industry |
| * Assocham: Panel discussions in Delhi, Jaipur, Hyderabad, Pune & Ahmedabad on corporate governance and CSR initiatives for small and medium scale industries |
The PHD Chamber, Bombay chambers and the ministry’s Indian Institute ofCorporate Affairs (IICA) are also reaching out to stakeholders, including the public, to showcase the contribution of the corporate sector and to highlight the need for converting this growth as an aid for social development.
In over 100 locations spread all over the country, seminars, conferences, summits and blood donation camps, essay competitions, including a Delhi run – where over 200 ICWAI students will run from the ICWAI central office to India Gate – are being held during December 14–21. All the events will echo the same theme, ‘Corporate India and inclusive growth’.
The need to emphasize the corporate world’s role in inclusive growth of the country was felt after Hyderabad-based Satyam Computer’s founder-promoters had confessed committing one of the country’s biggest accounting frauds early this year. The post-Satyam days had seen the corporate affairs ministry initiating a review of the country’s corporate governance practices and the functioning of its auditors and company managements.
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According to Salman Khurshid, corporate affairs minister, the Corporate Week, while celebrating the success of Indian corporate sector, will also endeavour to demystify corporate functioning for the common man.
The events organized by CII will be focusing on the best practices in corporate governance, Ficci on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and Assocham on the CSR initiatives in the small and medium enterprises sector.
While the programmes of all three chambers, held mostly in metro cities, will have the presence of the top company officials, senior bureaucrats and the minister, the events organised by the professional bodies will mostly cater to smaller cities and towns.
For instance, ICSI has “investor awareness” as its central theme. The institution will reach out to individual investors and conduct workshops to enable such first-time investors to make informed decisions while investing in the stock market. ‘How to read an offer document’ will be the topic of one of the lectures we intend to hold, an ICSI official said.
The week-long programmes will culminate into an event in New Delhi on December 21, where President Pratibha Patil will give away the National Corporate Awards to successful corporate leaders. A ‘Compendium of India Inc’, which would showcase the growth story of the corporate sector will be released on the occasion.