• Investment World
• eWorld
• Brand Line
• Mentor
• Life
• Brand Quest
• The New Manager
• Smartbuy

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources
• In Focus
• In Depth
• Events 2007

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• The Hindu ePaper
• Business Line
• Business Line ePaper
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Bijoy Ghosh

The Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mr Prem Chand Gupta (right), and Founder and Dean, Great Lakes Institute of Management, Dr Bala V. Balachandran, at a meet in Chennai on Tuesday. —

Our Bureau

Chennai, Sept. 2 The Companies Bill 2008, which was cleared by the Cabinet last week, is expected to come into effect latest by the end of 2009.

“Enacted, it will be the finest company Act in the world,” said the Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, Mr Prem Chand Gupta.

Companies in the SME segment can look forward to a more liberalised and less cumbersome regulatory regime in the new Act.

“At present, the small and large companies are treated on a par as far as the compliances are concerned. However, the new Act will make it much easier for small and medium enterprises,” he said.

Talking to mediapersons on the sidelines of the Human Resources Conclave 2008, organised here by Great Lakes Institute of Management, the Minister said the new Act is all about self-regulation with accountability. Companies will also be allowed to conduct Board meetings and annual general meetings through the electronic mode (video conferencing).

According to him, companies will not be required to provide complete details on the financials of their subsidiaries in their annual reports. In the years to come, it will pave the way for scrapping the practice of printing annual reports and instead, posting them on their Web site. “The proposed e-Governance would also require every company director to acquire a unique director’s identification number,” he pointed out.

Talking on the proposed Limited Liability Partnership Firm Bill, Mr Gupta said the Bill will be tabled in the next Parliament session. According to the Minister, the Act will remove the cap for number of partners in a partnership firm, which will benefit Indian professionals immensely.

Answering to a question on Singur stand-off, the Minister said the person concerned should go and meet those people directly, implying that Ratan Tata should directly go and meet those people and initiate talks. “If I were the person behind such a project, I would go and talk to those farmers directly and try sort out the issue,” he said.

More Stories on : SSI | Company Law

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line