India will need over 1.5 lakh company secretaries by 2047, CS Pawan G. Chandak, President, The Institute of Company Secretaries of India said.

As of today, the requirement is 10,000 company secretaries, he said at the sidelines of Tamil Nadu State Conference 2026 on the theme ‘Metamorphosis: Sector Specific Governance Architect’.

Sharing data of students and members in Tamil Nadu and Chennai, he said: “As of now, 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 in Chennai the numbers stand at 2,671,” he said. 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 institute to achieve 100% compliance with the National Education Policy (NEP). We were also the first to introduce Artificial Intelligence (AI) into our curriculum. Our syllabus is continuously updated to meet evolving industry requirements.”

He also elaborated on the various programmes 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 new programmes are available on the website – icsi.edu. “Efforts are also being taken to attract Gen-Z students to take up these courses,” he said.