It focused on the reforms in the corporate governance, emerging dimension of corporate social responsibility, protection of securities market and the challenges to corporate restructuring.
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Proceedings Report on
“Modern Corporate Laws: Understanding the
Dynamism”
Date – 5th- 6th Oct, 2013
Venue – GNLU, Gandhinagar
Supported
by
Knowledge
Partner
Knowledge
Partner
Supported
By
Organized by
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CONTENTS
About the Conference ........................................................................................................... 3
Day 1 – 5th October, 2013 ..................................................................................................... 3
Inaugural Ceremony ........................................................................................................... 3
List of Dignitaries ........................................................................................................................................... 3
Session I: Panel Discussion .................................................................................................. 4
Panel Members ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Technical Session I: “Corporate Governance: Competing Models & Possibility of Convergence” .................................................................................................................. 4
Resource Persons ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Participants ..................................................................................................................................................... 4
Address by Shri. Christian Hviid Madsen; LLM Student, GNLU ................................................................ 5
Address by Dr. Sanjay Kumar Pradhan; Assistant Professor, SLS, PDPU ................................................. 5
Address by Shri. Arjya B. Majumdar; Assistant Director, Jindal Global Law School ................................ 5
Technical Session II: “Development of Security Market: Improving Accessibility, Spreading Possibility and Inspiring Confidence” ........................................................... 5
Resource Persons ........................................................................................................................................... 5
Participants ..................................................................................................................................................... 5
Paper Presentation by Shri. Puneet Passi & Smt. Shreya Basu; Students, B.A. LLB, National Law University, Odisha .................................................................................................................................... 5
Paper Presentation by Shri. Mehul Parti & Smt. Ankita Chadha; Students, B.A. LLB, Amity Law School ................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Address Shri. Rahul Rajendra Mishra; Associate, SkyQuest Technology Group ....................................... 6
Day 2 – 6th October, 2013 .................................................................................................... 6
Panel Discussion .................................................................................................................. 6
Panel Members ............................................................................................................................................... 6
Technical Session III: “Corporate Restructuring: Borders and Beyond” ............................ 6
Resource Persons ........................................................................................................................................... 6
Participants ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Paper Presentation by Shri. Vinay Shukla; Student, B.A. LLB, Hidayatullah National Law University .. 7
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Paper Presentation by Smt. Swarnrekha Gopikrishna and Smt. Kaviti; Students of Law, NALSAR University of Law ...................................................................................................................................... 7
Paper Presentation by Smt. Nainshree Goyal and Shri. Anurag Bhamidatty; Students, B.B.A. LLB, Symbiosis Law School and GNLU ........................................................................................................... 7
Technical Session IV: “Corporate Restructuring: Borders and Beyond” ............................ 7
Resource Persons ........................................................................................................................................... 7
Participants ..................................................................................................................................................... 7
Paper Presentation by Shri. Varun Chauhan; Student, B. Com. LL.B., GNLU ........................................... 8
Paper Presentation by Smt. Kundhavi Suresh and Smt. Shaifali Singh; Student, B.A. LL.B., GNLU....... 8
Paper Presentation by Dr. Aparajita Bhatt; Assistant Professor, National Law University, Jodhpur ...... 8
Closing Ceremony and Certificates Distribution ................................................................. 8
List of Dignitaries ........................................................................................................................................... 8
Way Forward ........................................................................................................................ 9
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About the Conference
As the competition is increasing with increase in number of shareholders, the modern corporate world is subject to various issues and concerns. This has raised several unanswered questions and issues as well as challenges of modern corporate laws.
Modern corporate laws face the intimidating task of finding an optimum balance between facilitation of companies and regulation thereof, which has proved extremely intricate for the governments the world over. Erring on the side of either under-regulation or over-regulation can have cascading effects.
To address these issues the conference on “Modern Corporate Laws: Understanding the Dynamism” was organized. It focused on the reforms in the corporate governance, emerging dimension of corporate social responsibility, protection of securities market and the challenges to corporate restructuring.
The event saw the presence of experts from the legal fraternity, government bodies, academia and consultancies.
Day 1 – 5th October, 2013
Inaugural Ceremony
List of Dignitaries Name Organization Designation
Shri. Saurabh bhai Patel
Government of Gujarat
Hon’ble Minister, Energy & Petrochemicals, Government of Gujarat
Hon’ble Justice Shri D. R. Deshmukh
Company Law Board
Hon’ble Justice and Chairman
Shri. Shardul Shroff
AMSS
Managing Partner
Shri Saurabh bhai Patel, Hon’ble Minister, Energy & Petrochemicals, Government of Gujarat, mentioned that such conferences are extremely important in bringing about awareness about the changing landscape of Modern Corporate Laws and how the CSR mandate will lead to a paradigm shift in the vision and mission of the industries.
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Session I: Panel Discussion
Panel Members Name Organization Designation
Smt. Usha Narayanan
AMSS
Counsel
Shri Jatinder K. Jolly
ICLS Academy
Joint Director
Dr. Indrajit Dube
IIT-Kharagpur
Associate Professor
Dr. Thomas Zwissler
Zirngibl Langwieser
Attorney and Partner
Shri. Shashank Karnad
KPMG
Partner, Forensic Practice
Technical Session I: “Corporate Governance: Competing Models & Possibility of Convergence”
Resource Persons Name Organization Designation
Shri. Sandeep Parekh
Finsec Law Advisors
Founder
Dr. Indrajit Dube
IIT-Kharagpur
Associate Professor
Participants Name Organization Designation
Shri. Christian Hviid Madsen
GNLU
LLM Student
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Pradhan
PDPU
Assistant Professor
Shri. Arjya B. Majumdar
Jindal Global Law School
Assistant Director
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Address by Shri. Christian Hviid Madsen; LLM Student, GNLU
Shri. Christian Hviid Madsen shed light on Civil Law Perspective and deliberated on the Companies Act of Denmark. He covered both the civil law perspective and model law perspective and the role of Independent Directors in implementing the Act.
Address by Dr. Sanjay Kumar Pradhan; Assistant Professor, SLS, PDPU
Dr. Sanjay Kumar Pradhan discussed the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) with respect to Oil and Gas companies. He said that although several social initiatives and projects have been undertaken by Oil and Gas majors, their CSR in India has not yet received widespread recognition in academic curriculum, research field, policy orientations and target achievements.
Address by Shri. Arjya B. Majumdar; Assistant Director, Jindal Global Law School
Shri. Arjya Majumdar discussed the impending law making CSR mandatory under the Companies Bill 2011 and the resistance that it has met from the industry. He also suggested that CSR need not be viewed as expenditure, but as a socially beneficial, responsible and profitable investment.
Technical Session II: “Development of Security Market: Improving Accessibility, Spreading Possibility and Inspiring Confidence”
Resource Persons Name Organization Designation
Dr. Vijay Kumar Singh
Competition Commission of India
Deputy Director (Law)
Shri. V. Shyam Kishore
Alliance University
Assistant Professor
Participants Name Organization Designation
Shri. Puneet Passi & Smt. Shreya Basu
National Law University, Odisha
Students, B.A. LLB
Shri. Mehul Parti & Smt. Ankita Chadha
Amity Law School
Students, B.A. LLB
Shri. Rahul Rajendra Mishra
SkyQuest Technology Group
Associate
Paper Presentation by Shri. Puneet Passi & Smt. Shreya Basu; Students, B.A. LLB, National Law University, Odisha
The paper highlighted the philosophy of disclosure and the role of SEBI to review and reform the disclosure policies in order to benefit the average Indian investor. They also proposed fundamental principles that SEBI should keep in mind before mandating any new disclosure requirements.
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Paper Presentation by Shri. Mehul Parti & Smt. Ankita Chadha; Students, B.A. LLB, Amity Law School
The paper focused on the role of SEBI as the overseer of securities market. It discussed the measures taken by SEBI to protect its investors such as making dematerialized trading mandatory, shortening a trade cycle from a week to day and introduction of the Stock Watch System.
Address Shri. Rahul Rajendra Mishra; Associate, SkyQuest Technology Group
Shri. Rahul Rajendra Mishra expressed his worries about synchronized trading, a version of market manipulation and said that it is the major concern in India’s ever-growing capital markets. To counter such practices, it is essential that SEBI ensures stringent rules and regulations for punishing the wrong doers within reasonable period of time.
Day 2 – 6th October, 2013
Panel Discussion
Panel Members Name Organization Designation
Shri. Jog Singh
Securities Appellate Tribunal
Member
Smt. Dharmishtha Raval
High Court of Gujarat
Senior Advocate
Shri. Ashish Jejurkar
AMSS
Partner
Dr. K. K. Upadhyay
FICCI
Head - CSR
Technical Session III: “Corporate Restructuring: Borders and Beyond”
Resource Persons Name Organization Designation
Dr. Thomas Zwissler
Zirngibl Langwieser
Attorney and Partner
Shri Jatinder K. Jolly
ICLS Academy
Joint Director
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Participants Name Organization Designation
Shri. Vinay Shukla
Hidayatullah National Law University
Student, B.A. LLB
Smt. Swarnrekha Gopikrishna and Smt. Trishala Kaviti
NALSAR University of Law
Students of Law
Smt. Nainshree Goyal and Shri. Anurag Bhamidatty
Symbiosis Law School and GNLU
Students, B.B.A. LLB
Paper Presentation by Shri. Vinay Shukla; Student, B.A. LLB, Hidayatullah National Law University
The focus of the paper was on conundrum of control in takeover regulations. It explained how subjective definition of control would enable SEBI to make a determination based on the facts and circumstances of individual cases.
Paper Presentation by Smt. Swarnrekha Gopikrishna and Smt. Kaviti; Students of Law, NALSAR University of Law
The paper focused on securities offences by insider trading and manipulation of market. It discussed the contradiction between SEBI Regulations, 1992 and SEBI Act, the primary legislation. It also said that there is no clarity on which standard has to be used as the adjudicating platforms have not uniformly applied a single standard.
Paper Presentation by Smt. Nainshree Goyal and Shri. Anurag Bhamidatty; Students, B.B.A. LLB, Symbiosis Law School and GNLU
The paper emphasized on Mergers and Acquisitions as driving forces of growth. It discussed laws and the recent Companies’ bill, 2012 and also compared with the Company’s Act 1956 with respect to mergers, amalgamations and acquisition.
Technical Session IV: “Corporate Restructuring: Borders and Beyond”
Resource Persons Name Organization Designation
Smt. Deepa Mukherjee
Rainmaker
Faculty
Shri. Swarnendu Chaterjee
LexisNexis
Associate Commissioning Editor
Participants Name Organization Designation
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Shri. Varun Chauhan
GNLU
Student, B.Com. LLB
Smt. Kundhavi Suresh and Smt. Shaifali Singh
GNLU
Student, B.A. LLB
Dr. Aparajita Bhatt
National Law University, Jodhpur
Assistant Professor
Paper Presentation by Shri. Varun Chauhan; Student, B. Com. LL.B., GNLU
The paper discussed impacts of ease and corporate governance aspects in M&A in Companies Act, 2013. The paper analysed the impact that this act will have in M&A transactions in India. It also analysed the changes through the lens of ease of transaction and the corporate governance aspects involved within the process.
Paper Presentation by Smt. Kundhavi Suresh and Smt. Shaifali Singh; Student, B.A. LL.B., GNLU
The paper focused on amalgamation of companies and analysis of its legal and tax aspects. It covered the process of amalgamation of a company; from the need of it to the procedure and issues arising during the entire process. It also suggested the way forward and the changes needed to address these issues.
Paper Presentation by Dr. Aparajita Bhatt; Assistant Professor, National Law University, Jodhpur
The paper emphasized on the need for a systematic approach for cross border merger under various legislations in India. In this paper, it has been proposed that there is an immediate need to incorporate appropriate changes in various legislations in alignment with the Companies Act 2013. This is necessary in order to avoid clashes and conflicts in cross border mergers.
Closing Ceremony and Certificates Distribution
List of Dignitaries Name Organization Designation
Shri Jog Singh
Securities Appellate Tribunal
Member
Shri Kamal Dayani, IAS
Government of Gujarat
Industries Commissioner
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Way Forward
The 1st International Conference on “Modern Corporate Laws: Understanding the Dynamism” was a huge success and it observed enthusiastic participation from across the country.
It indicated that Companies Act 2013 should be the key to development of securities market and ensuring the safety of the investors. It is expected to smoothen the functioning of the corporate machinery. The companies should embrace the CSR mandate hence proposed and should see it as a long term investment.