India will need more than 1.5 lakh company secretaries by 2047, said CS Pawan G. Chandak, President, Institute of Company Secretaries of India.
As of today, the requirement is 10,000 company secretaries, he said on the sidelines of the Tamil Nadu 2026 state conference on ‘Metamorphosis: Sector Specific Governance Architect’.
Sharing data on students and members in Tamil Nadu and Chennai, he said, “Currently, Tamil Nadu has around 14,000 registered students and more than 8,000 are from Chennai. In terms of members, the state has nearly 4,000 members and Chennai has 2,671,” he said. He noted that there is a strong representation of women in the company secretary profession and pointed out that out of 80,000 company secretaries in India, nearly 35,000 are women.
When asked about the impact of AI, Mr. Chandak said, “The Institute of Company Secretaries of India was the first institute to achieve 100% compliance with the National Education Policy (NEP). We were also the first to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) in our curriculum. Our curriculum is constantly updated to meet evolving industry requirements.”
He also elaborated on 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 in Maritime Regulations and Compliance Management,” he said. He added that more details about the new programs are available on the website – icsi.edu. “Efforts are also being made to attract Gen-Z students to attend these courses,” he said.
Published – 17 May 2026 0:26 IST
