Vice-President calls for encouraging whistle blowers in corporates

Vice-President Venkaiah Naidu was delivering the convocation address at the Institute of Company Secretaries of India, in Hyderabad.

January 18, 2021 05:04 pm | Updated 05:06 pm IST - HYDERABAD:

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu. File

Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu. File

Vice-President M. Venkaiah Naidu has suggested to the corporates to encourage whistle-blowing mechanisms and provide adequate safeguards for the protection of whistleblowers as it was important to ensure transparency and accountability in corporate governance to enhance the confidence of stakeholders, including shareholders.

“We need to protect public money and systems have to be made foolproof to reduce any scope for any irregularity. Strong principles of corporate governance must be the driving force of any company. Transparency, integrity, and honesty must be upheld at all times and must be reflected in every business activity, “ he advised, the company secretaries at their convocation address of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) in Hyderabad on Monday.

The V-P said the onus was on the young company secretaries to ensure “ethics and accountability” in corporate governance through their guidance considering that Indian business got a bad name due to the “actions of a few”. But, “you should never swerve from the path of righteousness”, he said and described the CS as “conscience- keepers” of the corporate and hence, it was imperative to be upright and not succumb to any pressure from the management.

Professional bodies such as ICSI must ensure that corporate entities were not only professionally competent but law-abiding too, he said and lauded ICSI’s model codes of governance of gram panchayat and charity governance which have been translated into 12 regional languages. It was testament to the institute’s commitment towards strengthening governance frameworks at the village or gram level.

Mr. Naidu said the country had “reasonably fared” better during these troubled COVID-19 times including the developed ones in taking steps for economic revival. He was hopeful of the economy rebounding in the coming months and urged India Inc to take the lead in making it robust. There was no dearth of talent in the country and need of the hour is to identify and promote the talent.

The V-P also urged the younger generation to be aware of the country’s rich history and great civilisational values. TS Home Minister Mohammed Mahmood Ali, ICSI president Ashish Garg, secretary Asish Mohan and others were present.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.