Company Affairs Ministry renamed as Corporate Affairs Ministry

New Delhi, May 16 (UNI) As many as 15 years after India ushered in economic liberalisation, the Ministry of Company Affairs has taken a small but significant decision of renaming itself as the Ministry of Corporate Affairs to project a vision befitting India's goal to be an economic powerhouse.

''The new name not merely reflects a change in the form but also in the vision and approach that drives the initiatives of the Ministry,'' said Minister Prem Chand Gupta.

The new nomenclature captures the Ministry's new vision ''To be a leader and partner in initiatives for corporate reforms, good governance and enlightened regulation, with a view to promote and facilitate effective corporate functioning and investor protection,'' the Minister added.

He disclosed that The Companies Act, 1956 has been comprehensively revised and the draft for the new Company Law is at the vetting stage.

''We can understand the anxiety of the corporate world who have been waiting for this new law but it has to be appreciated that the Companies Act, 1956 is the single largest piece of legislation and it takes time to re-write a piece of legislation which is envisaged to be not only simple and easy to understand but also forward-looking in keeping with the dynamic process of change in an international environment, explained the Minister.

The Presidential notification renaming the ministry by amending the Government of India (Allocation of Business) Rules, 1961 was issued on May 9, an official release said here this evening.

It said the Ministry's working is no longer limited to the administration of companies but has increasingly acquired an all inclusive role of addressing a wide sweep of functions -- corporate governance reforms and the emerging legal framework.

Mr Gupta said the Ministry has reoriented itself in the last two years to meet the expectations of a vibrant corporate sector in its march towards the global competitive environment.

He said the Ministry is engaged in a complete revamp of the legal framework for the corporate sector, adding the proposed new framework will provide a significant boost to the growth of professional and knowledge domain in the country in an organised form. Similarly, amendments to the Competition Act, 2002 are at advanced stages of processing to enable operationalisation of a full-fledged Competition Commission of India.

UNI