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Monthly Newsletter 2024-03-06T13:08:43+00:00

Editorial

Beneficial ownership regulations continue to evolve and gain traction globally, as they serve as a precursor for a new era of financial integrity. These regulations not only lay the groundwork for reporting mandates but also serve as a testament to our collective commitment to transparency and accountability. Let us embrace this imperative and forge ahead on the path to a stronger, more resilient financial landscape. Provided this backdrop, this newsletter contains an article on Beneficial ownership, regulatory implications, and its way forward. We have also included exciting sections in the newsletter such as quiz and engaging brain teasers.

Editorial

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) considerations have become integral components in evaluating the sustainability and ethical impact of businesses and investments. Stakeholders, including investors, consumers, employees, and regulators, increasingly recognize the importance of ESG factors in decision-making processes. In this backdrop, this newsletter contains an article on Environmental Sustainability and Environmental, Social Governance covering various regulations and the recent trends, and its  disclosure requirements.

Editorial

Wish you all a joyous and a prosperous New Year. Happy 2024!

With each passing year, as technology continues to advance, dematerialization plays a crucial role in shaping the future of various sectors, promoting sustainability by reducing the reliance on physical resources and contributing to the seamless integration of digital solutions into our daily lives. Dematerialization has significantly reduced the risks associated with physical certificates, such as loss, theft, or forgery, while also promoting faster and more transparent transactions. In this backdrop, this newsletter contains an article on Dematerialization, covering its meaning, objective, the recent amendment, and its  requirements.

Editorial

Directors and Key Managerial Personnel (“KMP”), being the key decision makers of the Company, need to be compensated fairly for the expertise and experience they bring to the table. Owing to this, the concept of Remuneration to Managerial Personnel has been introduced in the Companies Act, 2013. Companies need to achieve the balance between paying adequate remuneration to the Directors and KMPs whilst ensuring that the remuneration is within the reasonable limits as mandated by the law. In this backdrop, this newsletter contains an article on Managerial Remuneration, covering its meaning, objective, limits and regulatory applicability and requirements.

Editorial

With the introduction of the concept of Corporate Governance and the rising need to ensure fair and ethical practices by a business, Vigil Mechanism and Whistleblowers have gained prominence. Whistleblower, being a person who reports matters of concerns within an organization requires protection from retaliation. For this, a Vigil Mechanism is required to be established by the companies who meet the threshold in order to provide safeguards against victimization.

Editorial

With the AGM season ending, the secretarial team can take a breather from the continued efforts of working towards the AGM documentation and procedure. The Annual General Meeting, being a yearly event is the focal point of the secretarial functions of any Company. It gives the shareholders a platform to express their concerns and put forward the same with the Directors of the Company.

Editorial

Empowering tomorrow, together: Building wealth with ownership.”

 In the talented world, investing in human capital and retaining them is a challenging task for the organizations. As a response to this, the concept of ‘Employee Stock Ownership Plan’ has emerged. This is a strategy for organizations and employees to grow together, both personally and professionally.

Editorial

“Empowering impact, connecting hearts, The Social Stock Exchange.”

In recent years, the world has witnessed a growing interest in impact investing and businesses that prioritize social and environmental goals alongside financial returns. As a response to this the concept of ‘Social Stock Exchange’ has been emerged.

Editorial

“Dividends are the cash flow that provides stability and resilience during the market uncertainty”- Warren Buffet

This is the AGM season and one thing that investors are eager about is the dividend announcements! What signal does a Company send when it declares a dividend? We all know that the dividend is nothing but the distribution of profits to shareholders and serves as a reflection of a company’s financial success.

Editorial

Happy World Environment Day to all the Readers!

The World Environment Day, celebrated on June 5th each year acts as a global call for action for the individuals and business to come together and protect our planet. The Corporate sector encourages environmental stewardship by making CSR contributions to the community and environment. CSR is crucial in encouraging the company to adopt sustainable practices, lessen its ecological impact, and give the environment top priority.

Editorial

CimplyFive had conducted “The RPT Challenge”, in the month of February 2023, to gather feedback from professionals on the challenges and present a lucid case to the regulators for reconsideration.

Thanks to the participants who took time to participate in this survey.

Editorial

All good things come to an end, and as an optimist I believe it paves way for the best. After 8+ years, I am moving out of CimplyFive effective March 31, 2023. CimplyFive is in safe hands to continue its journey to be the best corporate secretarial software in India.

Editorial

By adding intent and benefits under its ambit, the amendment to RPT (Related Party Transactions) definition has widen its scope casting onerous responsibilities on the corporate secretarial functionaries of listed companies.

Given that the change is effective April 1 2023, CimplyFive is initiating a short questionnaire this month titled “The RPT Challenge” to gather feedback from professionals on the challenges and present a lucid case to the regulators for reconsideration.

Editorial

Wish you all a very happy, prosperous, and healthy new year 2023. With every new year we realise that change is the only constant, more so in our professional life, where the business is in a constant state of flux driven by regulatory changes, emerging technologies, and economic outlook. Team CimplyFive is prepared to handle these changes as we strive to meet and exceed our client’s expectation.

Editorial

It is December and we are happy to share that our annual compilation, VI India Secretarial Practice, 2022, is in the final stages of publication and we plan to release it in the third week of December. The report has identified many interesting practices that we believe will be of value to all corporate governance professionals.

Editorial

October 31st is a visible date every year in corporate compliance calendar. Around this time, professional institutes like ICSI and ICAI clamour for extension of timelines for companies to file their annual returns. Almost every year, the regulator responds favourably, thereby diluting the sanctity of compliance timelines.

Editorial

We released on Sept 27, our 20th research report titled ‘CimplyFive’s Report on Board Evaluation Practices, 2022’. In the era of BOGO, Buy One, Get One free, we also released a short booklet on Company Directors Responsibilities & Liabilities on the same occasion to reach a larger audience. It is initial days, but the response that we got in the event to release these reports attended by around 100 people is positive and encouraging.

Editorial

‘Come September’ in addition to being a popular romantic comedy with a catchy title song is also the time of the year when businesses can pause to stock-take their performance as they near the half-year mark. At CimplyFive, our year could not have been better: not only our client acquisition has ramped up significantly, the lead time for sales conversion has also significantly shortened.

Editorial

Welcome to CimplyFive 2.0. As you may be aware, on June 30, 2022, Clear, formerly known as Clear tax, acquired a majority stake in CimplyFive. With this transaction, CimplyFive is now a part of the Clear family.

Editorial

It takes two hands to clap and in the context of creating shareholder value, the two hands are strong business results and good corporate governance.

Editorial

A big heartfelt thanks to all our patrons. We are pleased to share that our free to use website www.ca2013.com touched 20 million page views on 1st June 2022. To celebrate this joyous occasion, we are launching a new interview series titled Discovering Gilt Edged Corporate Governance Practices.

Editorial

The first quarter of every financial year is the busy time for governance professionals in all corporates. This is the time when they prepare and share the annual shareholder/ stakeholder communication of the year gone by and prospects for the year ahead.

Editorial

Wish you all a very prosperous and fully compliant new FY 202223. A new year demands new initiatives. Following this principle, from this month, we are replacing our 5Qs for Corporate Professionals with a new series capturing key elements in the evolution of corporate governance titled “CCG Cusps in Corporate Governance”.

Editorial

‘Every end signals a new beginning’ is a popular saying that resonates in the governance and compliance world too. March being the financial year-end, it is the right time for governance and compliance stocktake of the year gone by and for planning new initiatives in the year to come.

Editorial

In the Indian corporate world, February is synonymous with the Union Budget. This year too, the Union Budget attracted wide interest and evoked a mixed reaction after it was delivered.

Editorial

Wish you all a very Happy New Year. May 2022 usher in all around prosperity and good health to add to our happiness. As corporate professionals we can all pray for a less turbulent regulatory environment which reduces the cost of compliance and helps all our corporates stay compliant.

Editorial

2021 is an action-packed year, especially on the IPO front. With a red-hot capital market, the regulatory front too was buzzing, keeping corporate professionals on their toes. We believe our newsletter would in some way help you to keep abreast of changes.

Editorial

Team CimplyFive wishes you all a very Happy Diwali. May this festival of lights shower you, your family and your business with good health, happiness, and prosperity.

Editorial

With stock markets touching new highs and the flood of IPOs continuing unabated, it is time to remember the popular saying ‘Valuations are in spot light during bull runs while governance and accounting issues dominate the bear markets.’

Editorial

Today, September the 3rd, marks our 7th year of incorporation. On this memorable occasion, our heartfelt thanks to the CS fraternity for reinforcing their confidence in us

Editorial

Many see compliance and governance as the two sides of the same coin. However, we view compliance as a subset of governance, for governance goes beyond the domain of law and resides in the ethical sphere of being accountable, not just to other stakeholders but to one’s own conscience.

Editorial

As we approach the 13th Million page view for our free to use corporate law website, www.ca2013.com, we launched a quick survey to find out what the professionals who visit our site value.

Editorial

Success is the ultimate motivator and team building glue. Our own experience helps us realize this truth.

Editorial

No one living in India can be insulated from the havoc caused by the second wave of Covid-19. For many of us the sufferings of Covid-19 that seemed abstract in 2020, is real now.

Editorial

It is a well-known axiom in cricket that to play every ball on its merit is the secret to playing a long match winning innings.

Editorial

March 1st marks the start of vaccination program to provide us the COVID-shield, which also marks the first anniversary of the series of lock down that began a year ago.

Editorial

No Indian or cricket fan could have been untouched by the upset win that Indians achieved over Australia in the recent cricket series.

Editorial

We wish you a happy new year 2021 and may the birth of this new decade 2020s usher in good health and prosperity in our world

Editorial

With UK approving Pfizer and BioNTech vaccine and scheduling to start mass vaccination next week, we are seeing some light at the end of the dark tunnel of Covid-19 pandemic.

Editorial

I am sure like me all of you are also praying for a change of scene, where the spectre of COVID-19 recedes replaced by the optimism of a new dawn ushered in by the festival of lights- Diwali in November.

Editorial

September for us was an eventful month as planned. Our report on Corporate Board Evaluation released on September 17th was very well received with more than 500 downloads of this report.

Editorial

CimplyFive is six years young. Incorporated on September 3, 2014, it looks as if we started yesterday.

Editorial

Acceptance of technology is not quick, especially in matters involving law and courts. Digital documents, digital signatures and video presence have slowly but surely entered the domain of corporate law.

Editorial

The most visible sign of the new normal in post Covid-19 era is the sight of top-tier club football matches in Europe played in empty stadiums.

Editorial

After two months of extended lockdowns, the month of June is seeing Unlock 1.0. Bangalore is among the few fortunate cities to see life return to almost normal, except for dine-in restaurants, cinema halls and malls

Editorial
Together, we all completed our first month of Work from Home (WFH).

Editorial
We face unprecedented times due to Covid-19. Lockdown is not only a part of our vocabulary now but is also overpowering our lives.

Editorial
The regulators deferred by two months the requirement of the much debatable mandate for Independent Directors to register in a specified database by February 29th and qualify within the next 12 months by passing an examination.

Editorial
On January 31, 2020 we released India Secretarial Practice 2019 report. This is the fourth in our series of Secretarial Practice Reports that we started in 2015.

Team CimplyFive Wishes you all a very happy, prosperous and compliant new year 2020

2019 was a momentous year for the Indian corporate professionals for it saw unprecedented action, reaction and response on the regulatory front, triggered by the penalty provisions relating to mandatory CSR spends

Editorial

Team CimplyFive wishes all its readers a BLISSFUL new year; a year filled with good health, prosperity and happiness.

Editorial

BLISSGLOBAL is the new addition to CimplyFive family in January 2019.

Editorial

On March 3rd, with a short pooja we shifted to a larger and more conveniently located office that is right next to the Srirampura metro station.

Editorial

Wish you all a very happy and prosperous New Financial Year.  I hope that the financial year just got over was to your satisfaction.

Editorial

In April we spent some quality time on how our website www.ca2013.com can be made useful to entrepreneurs and senior corporate executives.

Editorial

Our free-to-use website www.ca2013.com, that demonstrates our domain teams’ daily knowledge updating practice, reached a significant milestone on May 10th when it crossed four million page views.

Editorial

Annual Secretarial Compliance Report for Listed Companies is a new reporting requirement introduced by the SEBI following the Kotak Committee recommendations.

Editorial

CimplyFive, your company is now ISO 27001, ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 certified. For our esteemed clients this means their data hosted in our BLISS software is secured by the state of art security systems and processes.

Editorial

On September 3rd this week, CimplyFive celebrated its fifth birthday. We thank you all for your support in making our journey exciting and engaging. We seek your continuing support as we march on to make BLISS the de-facto standard for Secretarial Practice in India

Editorial

On September 10th we achieved a critical milestone when CAIRR, our free to use website www.ca2013.com, crossed five-million page views. What is heartening is that each succeeding million has been reached in a shorter time span. Team CimplyFive thanks you for your continuing support and patronage to our website.

Editorial

The traditionally busy month October is also the month where compliant professionals feel let down for having adhered to the compliance timelines

Editorial

The Report of the Company Law Committee on further recategorization of certain criminal compoundable offences to civil wrongs of November 14th is a welcome step in promoting Ease of Doing Business.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Team CimplyFive wishes you, your family and your colleagues a BLISSFUL 2018. As we eagerly welcome the New Year, we look back at 2017 for what it was, a landmark year for company law enforcement that has long term implications for both the companies and corporate law professionals.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

If we go by the popular saying, ‘a good beginning is a job half done’, we at CimplyFive have only the balance 50% to do in the next eleven months of 2018.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

The Union Cabinet’s decision to set up National Financial Reporting Authority (NFRA) looks to be a continuation of the trend toward more stringent enforcement regime.

Editorial

Come April, we eagerly look forward to the new financial year. As we turn four, our anticipation runs high with our expanded product range starting from BLISS (Board Leaders Integrated Software Solution) our initial version, to what we have today− BLISSPLUS for large companies with enhanced features, BLISSLISTED for listed companies with LODR compliances integrated, BLISSDOCS an app for directors to access board documents on mobile or tablet that is available both on Android and IOS.

Editorial

April was a busy month not only for the company secretaries and chartered accountants who were facilitating board meetings, but also our regulators. April saw fifteen changes in corporate law of which eight changes were in the Companies Act, 2013 in the form of notifications, orders and clarifications.  The large number of changes seen in the Companies Act, 2013 makes our free to use website www.ca2013.com a valuable, must daily access website for corporate professionals.

Editorial

Compliance professionals are seeing a marked shift in the environment in which they operate. For the first time, we are seeing large audit firms resigning prior to giving the audit report, as they were not getting information or cooperation from the management of companies.

Editorial

June 2018 saw us cross a critical milestone. Our free to use website www.ca2013.com that provides an integrated view of the Companies Act, 2013, IB Code and LODR crossed 2500 subscribers who have signed up to receive updates and 2 million pages views since its launch.

Editorial

India has taken a significant step in moving towards good corporate governance by enacting the ‘Companies (Significant Beneficial Owners) Rules, 2018’ in June this year, thereby enhancing transparency.

Editorial

CimplyFive wishes all the Company Secretaries and students pursuing their Company Secretary course in India a very happy golden jubilee on the completion of 50th anniversary of ICSI formation.

Editorial

September 30th marks the end of the statutory deadline for holding AGM for companies, an event that marks the completion of a year in the life of a company that triggers the need to file the Annual Returns.

Editorial

Wish you and your family a very happy and prosperous Diwali. On the professional front, may this festival of lights usher in an era of challenging assignments, satisfying performance and a desire to do more.

Editorial

The pace at which company law in India is changing continues unabated as the changes and the proposal for changes keep flowing.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Wish you all a very happy 2017

A New Year not only provides us a valuable milestone to take stock of our performance but it also gives us the chance to discard our existing limitations and start a new beginning to achieve greater heights.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

They say there is nothing like a good beginning and I am happy to share with you that the year 2017 began for us on a very happy note. January 2017 saw the highest level of enquiries, request for product demos and some marquee customer signings. We believe we are on the right track and take inspiration from our customer feedback as we look ahead to meet their growing expectations.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

At CimplyFive we believe that we keep ourselves professionally relevant only when our knowledge is up to date. We stay on our toes with our free to use website www.ca2013.com that is updated every day for changes in the Companies Act, 2013.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

April 1st is the beginning of a new financial year for all ‘Indian’ companies. We at CimplyFive wish you all a very compliant, prosperous and wealthy new year and hope 2017-18 will be better in every aspect than the year that has just gone by.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

April 2017 was another eventful months for us in CimplyFive. On April 17, we integrated Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code 2016 with the Companies Act 2013 in our free to use website www.ca2013.com. With 71 sections in the Companies Act, affected by the IB code, it was imperative to integrate the two to present a comprehensive and lucid point of view to the reader.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

On May 29th, our free to use website on the Companies Act, 2013, www.ca2013.com, crossed half a million page views, i.e. 500,000 page views. We are now consistently getting about 500-700 visitors a day with over 3000 page views. What is heartening is the pace at which our site is gaining popularity. More satisfying is the repeat visitors who come to our site.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

June was a month of joy and happiness for us at CimplyFive as we achieved a few significant milestones.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Our first research report based webinar in July 2017 was well attended. With 62 people participating, we were pleasantly surprised by overseas attendees, including individuals from the USA.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

On September 3rd, we turned 3. As I reflect on the three years, the first thought that strikes me is that life in a start-up is like an emotional roller coaster ride.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

September 2017 marks a turning point in the corporate world as for the first time penalties that existed in statutes were enforced with a vigour that shook the board rooms across India.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

The festival of lights came early this year in October brightening our business prospects.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

It is December once again and New Year is just around the corner and with it we have seeded a new initiative, BLISS User Tip (BUT).

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Welcome to the fourth issue of iComply.Wish you all a very happy 2016. May this year bring good health, wealth and peace to all

Editorial

Dear Reader,

The New Year began on an eventful note. We had the mega meet on Start-Up India where our Prime Minister announced the new Start-up Policy which has the potential to change Corporate India and the Indian Economics.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

The last day of February is the day for Indian Union Budget, which crowds out all other financial and corporate events by occupying the centre stage. And rightly so, for it sets the pace for the forthcoming financial year.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

We at CimplyFive wish you all a very happy new financial year. In addition, we wish you abundant growth and prosperity.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

We are overwhelmed by your response to our report Secretarial Audit Reports Trends & Practice in 2015. Many of you have appreciated the painstaking effort that the team has taken in compiling this report. In addition, the structure and presentation of the report that has offered concrete recommendations has also been mentioned.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Partnering India’s first proxy advisory firm InGovern Research Services, on May 30th we released our report Board Evaluation Practices in India where we rated the top 100 Companies in India using our proprietary 5-star model. This report was well received with all the major business dailies prominently covering it-Economic Times, Live Mint, Business Standard, The Hindu Business Line, among others.

Editorial

Our thirst to understand and contribute to evolving good secretarial practices is unquenched. Last week we launched CimplyFive’s first Survey of Secretarial Practices. We are happy to share that within the first four days we had more than 200 responses.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Last month we completed our first Survey on Corporate Secretarial Practices in which 222 Professionals participated. What made the survey results rich was the experience profile of the participants and the rationale they shared for their practices.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

Its’ exciting doing it first time. More so if it is a novel experience not envisaged before. In the last week of August we had the unique experience of having over 400 students from St. Joseph’s College of Commerce using BLISS as a part of their internal assessment project in their Company Law & Secretarial Practice course.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

September was a very eventful month at CimplyFive. We completed our second private placement of equity shares, expanded our Board of Directors and shifted to a larger office, fortunately for us in the very next building.  We are now nicely poised to serve a larger subscriber base with whom we are keen to engage.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

October was an interesting month for the corporate law professionals as the ‘Mistry’ episode brought company law procedures to the center stage. Board meeting, notice period for conducting Board Meeting and the innocuous residual item – Any other item with the permission of the Chair are among the hotly debated topics.

Editorial

Dear Reader,

A Very Happy New Year.

Have I got my dates wrong? No I think not, for in the Indian Corporate Secretarial world, Financial Year 2015-16 ended on November 29th and November 30th is the beginning of the new financial year.

Editorial

Welcome to the inaugural issue of iComply the monthly newsletter from CimplyFive Corporate Secretarial Services.

Editorial

Welcome to the second issue of iComply. Our focus in this issue is on professionals, for a profession is only defined by its professionals.

Editorial

Welcome to the third issue of iComply.

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