New Companies Bill to be passed this year: Salman Khurshid

Retail investors’ participation in capital markets required for GDP growth : Mr Salman Khurshid

The Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mr. Salman Khurshid released literature on Investor Education and Protection as part of the Ministry’s initiative under the ongoing India Investor Week at a Conference organized by Confederation of Indian Industry’s (CII) on ‘Governance: The Essence of Investor Protection’ in Mumbai today.

Marathi version of official government website on Investor Education and Protection Fund was also launched by the Minister as part of the ongoing India Investor Week 2010.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr. Salman Khurshid, said that the retail participation is too less in the country’s capital markets. “If the small investors are educated about capital markets, their funds’ mobilization in capital markets can push the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate up”.

Explaining the concept of the India Investor Week, the Minister said that “the idea behind India Investor Week 2010 is to catapult investors’ education to the mainstream agenda of all stakeholders - the government, industry players, chambers like CII and others. There is need of developing conducive investment culture in the country.”

On passage of the new Companies Bill, the Minister reassured it would get passage by the end of this year.

Mr. R Bandyopadhyay, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs said, “Under the India Investor Week and the year-long initiative, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs would be organizing more than 3000 programs nationwide to spread awareness on the investors’ rights and protection in partnership with various agencies and industry bodies like CII.” Mr. Bandyopadhyay also said that besides the official website, www.iepf.gov.in, there are other websites which investors can refer to are www.watchoutinvestors.com and www.investorshelpline.in.

Mr. J J Irani, Director, Tata Sons Limited said, “There is need of self regulatory code of conduct among the companies. They should also encourage independent directors in the companies who can keep watch on the operations of the organizations and hence help in safeguarding stakeholders interests at large. The internal code of conduct should also encourage internal audit.