Corp Affairs Ministry makes presentation to Sitharaman

The Corporate Affairs Ministry today made a presentation, which touched upon various aspects of the new companies law and other issues, to the new minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
The Ministry is implementing the new Companies Act, which seeks to revamp the way corporates are governed. Some parts of the law are yet to be operationalised.
Sources said the presentation went on for about 20 minutes.
Sitharaman is the Minister of State (MoS), Corporate Affairs. She holds the independent charge for Commerce and Industry Ministry. She is also MoS in the Ministry of Finance.
Arun Jaitley, who is in charge of Finance and Defence Ministries, is the Cabinet Minister for Corporate Affairs.

Both Jaitley and Sitharaman are yet to formally assume charge at the Corporate Affairs Ministry.

The presentation to Sitharaman was made at the Commerce and Industry Ministry by Corporate Affiars Ministry officials.
Later Corporate Affairs Secretary Naved Masood met the Finance Minister.
After the meeting, Masood said that implementing the new Companies Act is the major challenge for the Ministry.
The legislation has been passed and more than half of it has come into force. But it is a very major legislation, so lot more to be done, he said.
Yesterday, Jaitley had said that the Corporate Affairs Ministry would be clubbed with the Finance Ministry.

"There will be clubbing. Currently the (Corporate Affairs) ministry is under me. A notification has to come," he had said.
The Corporate Affairs Ministry is implementing the new Companies Act which has 29 chapters, seven schedules and 470 sections.
About 187 sections, including those related to setting up the National Company Law Tribunal and its appellate body, are yet to be implemented.
Among others, the new law requires certain class of profitable companies to shell out at least two per cent of their three-year annual average net profit towards Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities.
The law also has strong provisions to protect the interest of investors and ensure good corporate governance practices.