India will need 1.5 lakh company secretaries by 2047: ICSI President

CS Pawan G. Chandak, President of the Indian Institute of Company Secretaries, said India will need more than 1.5 lakh company secretaries by 2047.

Speaking on the sidelines of the Tamil Nadu State Conference 2026 on ‘Transformation: Sector-Specific Governance Architect’, he said the requirement as of today is 10,000 company secretaries.

Sharing data of students and members in Tamil Nadu and Chennai, he said: “As of now, there are around 14,000 registered students in Tamil Nadu and more than 8,000 are from Chennai. In terms of members, the state has around 4,000 members and in Chennai the number is 2,671.” Noting that there is a strong presence of women in the company secretary profession, he pointed out that of the 80,000 company secretaries in India, nearly 35,000 are women.

When asked about the impact of Artificial Intelligence, Mr. Chandak said: “The Institute of Company Secretaries of India was the first institution to achieve 100% compliance with the National Education Policy (NEP). We were also the first institution to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our curriculum. Our curriculum is constantly updated to meet the evolving industry requirements.”

He also talked about the various programs offered by the institute. “We offer a certificate course in Corporate and Securities Markets Compliance. We also offer a full-time MBA program in Maritime Regulatory and Compliance Management,” he said. More details about the new programs are available on the icsi.edu website, he added. “Efforts are also being made to ensure that Generation Z students attend these courses,” he said.