Rahul Chillal
Companies Act 2013 has made the Position of Independent Director a very important & had cast upon it huge duty of governance. The Independent Director qualification & appointment has been clearly spelt out. One of the main features of the Act was the creation & maintainence of Independent Directors Repository. This is a Database of persons who are willing to Act as Independent Directors in any Corporate. The Corporates can pick up any person who they see is capable of being appointed as Independent Director.
For this the 3 Professional Bodies i.e ICAI, ICWAI, ICSI have jointly made initiative to develop the Independent Directors Repository. The Members of these 3 professional bodies can very well hold the Independent Director position. This is a very good way of MCA to infuse professional members in corporates & let them have a say in the management. The professional also get a good opportunity to be in Directors position.
For Registering oneself for being appointed as Independent Director one needs to register at http://independentdirector.in/ . The Companies who want individuals to be appointed as Independent Director in their company can also register here. The Fees for Companies is Rs 99 & for Individuals is Rs 22. The fees paid will be valid for one year only. There is no compulsory that only Members of professional bodies have to apply for the Independent Director position, any Individual can apply.
Press Release Dated 12.08.2014 from Ministry of Corporate Affairs
Independent Directors Repository Operationalized
Section 150 of the Companies Act, 2013 provides for creation and maintenance of database of Independent Directors. In this regard, the three Professional Institutes, namely, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India and The Institute of Cost Accountants of India, under the active encouragement of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India have taken a joint initiative and developed a portal namely “Independent Directors Repository ” .The portal would help to facilitate the individuals who are eligible and willing to act as Independent Directors. This will also facilitate Companies to select the persons who are eligible and willing to act as Independent Directors. The portal is now operational and the URL of the portal is http://independentdirector.in
CA. K. Raghu, President, The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India, said “ICAI is very happy that this Independent Directors Repository would be really beneficial and it is a big opportunity to the members of the three Professional Institutes and other persons who are eligible and willing to act as Independent Directors. Further, the companies may also be benefited in selecting individuals as independent directors as per their requirement on their board. This endeavour of the three Professional Institutes under the active encouragement of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, is towards implementing the provisions of the Companies Act, 2013. The Independent Directors and the companies would be sharing a common platform which would enable them to meet each other`s requirements.”
CS. R Sridharan, President, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India, said “The Companies Act, 2013 provides for creation and maintenance of Independent Directors database. To fulfil this requirement the three Professional Institutes have come together and developed an Independent Directors Repository. This Repository would be mutually helpful to both, the individuals who are willing to act as independent directors as well the companies to select independent directors for their Board.”
CMA Dr A. S. Durgaprasad, President, The Institute of Cost Accountants of India, said “the joint initiative of the three Professional Institutes in developing the Independent Directors Repository Portal would not only provide a platform to Individuals willing to act as Independent Directors to register themselves but also give access to the large database of professionals to the companies enabling them to select Independent Directors as per their requirement.”
