Recent Developments and Current Affairs in Corporate Law and Finance
The exam tests whether you know the reforms that have changed company and market practice since the Companies Act 2013, and can use them without quoting outdated numbers.
Company law changes
- The Companies (Amendment) Act 2020 decriminalised several minor offences, moving them to civil penalties imposed by adjudicating officers; failure to spend CSR is no longer a criminal offence.
- Section 203 now covers every listed company and every other company with paid-up share capital of ₹10 crore or more for whole-time Company Secretary appointment.
- Small company thresholds were raised in 2022 to paid-up capital up to ₹4 crore and turnover up to ₹40 crore, which brings lighter compliance.
- The MCA21 V3 portal, launched in 2023, handles filings and has made several forms web-based.
- Rule 9B requires private companies other than small companies to issue securities in dematerialised form and to facilitate dematerialisation within MCA's notified timeline.
Market and sustainability
- T+1 settlement from January 2023; UPI-based ASBA for IPO applications.
- BRSR is mandatory for the top 1,000 listed companies by market capitalisation from FY 2022-23.
- SEBI's Social Stock Exchange framework (2022) allows non-profit and for-profit social enterprises to raise funds.
- E-voting is mandatory for listed companies and companies with 1,000 or more members.
Worked example
A company has net worth of ₹3 crore, turnover of ₹30 crore and net profit of ₹1.2 crore. It satisfies both new small-company limits (₹4 crore and ₹40 crore), so it holds only two board meetings a year, one in each half of the calendar year with a gap of at least 90 days, and is exempt from a cash flow statement.
Traps
- Quoting a superseded threshold after a notification has changed it.
- Describing CSR non-spend as a criminal offence.
- Confusing the small-company test (both limits) with the CSR test (any one limit).