Mr. Santosh Parashar, Additional Director and Head of Corporate Affairs at ASSOCHAM is responsible for policy advocacy, Government and Business Relations, Internal and External Communications, Corporate Advisory, recommendations and suggestions to the ministries and authorities. He started his career with Bachelors in Science and soon shifted his career path to corporate affairs. Mr. Parashar talks about his journey though govt bodies and the field of advocacy with Apoorva Mehta, Executive Manager at Legal Desire
1) Can you tell a little bit about yourself to our readers?
I have invested my career’s early 10 years in conceptualizing, designing, executing and supervising highend quality initiatives such as capacity building programmes, conducting quality research, training and development for management aspirants, and corporate executives with prime focus on subject areas including finance, financial services, securities law, capital market, corporate governance and allied subjects. This offered me an opportunity to become a vital part of a project pertaining to investor education and their protection in northern India as an expert resource to India’s Capital Market Regulator i.e. SEBI. It was during the course of this project that I connected with various individuals investing their hard earned money at several places and learned and gathered their issues and gradiences with a resolution to resolve them. These years and various roles and responsibilities that I have undertaken brought me closer to the stakeholder’s issues and several regulatory and legislative gaps that often leads to investors losing to fraudsters or being caught in the labyrinth of regulations and gaps therein. Now its been 20 years of learning, experimenting, embracing new challenges and adapting to new exposures. All of this comes right from classrooms to court rooms and bureaucratic rooms to the parliament corridors.
2) You have been associated with the apex industry body for a long time now, how did it all start?
An experience, a very close watch and understanding of markets, corporate and economy trends, a fair communication skill, content creation ability, and an exposure to work hand-in-hand with government and regulatory institutions encouraged me to look for an opportunity that further enhances and builds my capability to perform in these areas. I had applied at Assocham against an opening drawn from an English daily and appeared for a couple of rounds of interviews to start my career as joint director for the Department of Corporate Affairs and Capital Market. That being the start of a journey the latter part has been full of turns and twists embodied with unique and need based initiatives, a thought leadership, policy advocacy, research & assessments, leading strategic communication with government and regulators, global bodies and a lot more than I can mention anywhere has become a part and parcel to work for.
3) What was your role at Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs?
The objective behind establishment of “Integrated Advocacy Fulcrum” which I spearheaded at IICA was to effectively engage with the stakeholders by way of educative discourse, policy advocacy driven initiatives to aid and assist businesses while simultaneously allowing them to avail the benefits of changes in the regulatory framework. To ensure smooth execution of the advocacy programs, it was desirable that there existed a single institution which could oversee and implement them as the methodology and process. In light of the fact that the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) had a wide range of experience in conducting training programs for different statutes, it was therefore conceived that IAF can be treated as a fulcrum for all the advocacy needs ! As head of Integrated advocacy fulcrum, my role was to build a team required for extending the operational support to all other centres and schools at IICA which aligned broadly to the mandates of the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India. I was assigned to deliver the important govt. projects which were allocated to IICA by Competition Commission of India, IEPF Authority, RBI, NFCG and IBBI. Some of the important ones included- execution of the first cycle of National CSR Awards, advocacy for CCI and IEPFA.
4) What does your day look like as Head of Corporate, Legal and Regulatory Affairs ?
It is mostly to work on the priority subject areas under the national councils and meet the pressing timelines for submission of various recommendations and suggestions on white papers, issues and concerns, policy level changes, amendments to provisions of existing laws which are received by the department of corporate, legal and regulatory affairs i.e. either from govt. or from industry. The workings require a proactive engagement through outreach in different formats, mobilising financial and expert resources from pan-India. This follows a protocal to carry-out the reviews of comments so received, do thorough scanning on consequential impacts and effects of proposals so received, do brainstorming with teams to zero-on the non-essentials, and present the essentials items to the leaderships of sectoral chairs, co-chairs and members of industry and society for further scanning. This follows to finalise the representations in such a balanced manner which should protect the interest of all and bring out a positive and transformative change that benefits the economy and society at large.
5) As a student of B.Sc., how did you shift to working in corporate affairs?
There was no sudden transition but the shift was based on hands on experience with consistent delivery of performance, a zeal to look beyond, working with team as team player-while leading the projects, and explore new ways, courage to work for common goodness, an adaptation to neo-approaches, innovative thoughts on advocacy needs, creating the interest of stakeholders with learning attitude and an acceptance to the new assignments responsibly helped me lot to be in corporate affairs. It is indeed the term ‘corporate affairs’ which covers a broad spectrum of things to do and scope to work which is much beyond mere corporate communication.
6) What line of education should a student pursue to work with industry bodies like yours?
It is irrespective to the stream, a student seeking career with such organisations must have strong communication skill both oral and written, should make a target/s focusing on a few sectors of interest in the economy as well as international advances happening across sectors, may start getting participation in the online and offline activities that include dialogues, seminars, conferences, workshops and learn the requirements of institutions. Students should keep a tracking on openings to apply for jobs as per HR process and notifications keep coming online media/channels or through HR portals. With a lot of innovation in the HR space evolving internationally, most of the organisations focus on providing equal opportunities to all while maintaining gender diversity and inclusiveness.
7) Can you tell us a little about the training you give to the interns?
Providing opportunity to interns is an extension to what organisations are committed to bridging the gap of industry and academia. Enabling and excelling to the aspiring management and law student about practical workflow which otherwise they do not get in the academic institution helps them to get an exposure. Training in research activities, curating concept papers, communicating with top corporate leaders and professionals, drafting reports help them prepare for future employment opportunities in the market and to work in such national and international organisations. Mostly, interested trainees when they correspond with HR or website, they are given opportunities as per the requirement of the department or the ongoing project needs. The department’s advocacy includes working on Ind AS, Sustainability Accounting, ESG Reporting, CSR, Good Corporate Governance, Internal Audit and Risk Management, PMLA, HR&IR Policies and Reforms, Labour Laws, Competition Law, Companies Act, 2013, Securities Law, LLP Act, 2008. The interested interns are normally considered when they apply six to eight months in advance.
8) You were the Lead Executor of a project of IEPFA, take us through your experience?
India’s low financial literacy proves to be a disaster for several individuals who easily become victims of financial crime every day. My practical experience of working at SEBI gave me an opportunity to work for the IEPFA Project. I had appeared for a written examination followed by rounds of interviews at IICA and after induction it started with an exposure to hard core and typical system of green files and process of work-flow. From various notices, circulars, references, records and sanctions and pendencies I assumed the multiple challenges and translated most of the projects into actions. This included empanelment and training of 400+RPs from all over India, developed the content for trainers for their use in imparting investor education. This also included radio jingles, trainers’ module, TV Commercials, content for Vlogs and blogs, organised and hosted workshops, seminars and conferences on themes of IEPFA, provided resources for Independent Directors’ Data Bank, initiated and ran the tender / bidding as per General Financial Rules, 2017 for IEPFA for delivering certain projects as per the directives of the ministry of corporate affairs.
9) Is there any initiative, role or intervention that you led which has brought out any change to the mindset of stakeholders, citizens or that has sensitized India’s legal and regulatory landscape?
One of my past initiatives included the advocacy of cryptocurrency and blockchain in 2017 which created a buzz around the country. The conference had an international participation of blockchain experts, investors and media whereas the government, regulators, legal, vigilance, accounting, auditing and taxation fraternity had an exclusive opportunity of using the platform which was curated for the first time ever on such a subject in India. This initiative was an aftermath to those who were impacting gullible small savers and to others’ the developments so far are now bringing out clarity on do’s and don’ts and helping individuals to take informed decisions before they invest. Legal and judicial interventions led to the applicability of direct and indirect taxes that has become a newer source of revenue to the government, and also which has slightly turned into a weapon to control cross border digital hawala transactions. While a lot more is happening in the sector, I recall this being a distinguished initiative that engages me in dialogues on the subject and provides a lot of satisfaction so far.
10) Lastly, what is the roadmap to work in the field of advocacy with organisations such as yours at present or past one?
I have worked mostly in organisations which bring actionable insights, strengthen the ecosystem, and provide an opportunity to work as a conduit between the stakeholders and government. The utmost vital for a sustainable career in industry chambers requires a mix of professional knowledge, strategic communication and level of patience to grow without applying any shortcut approaches. On the other hand, to work for the central or state government projects in the leadership role one has to be fully aware of the systems and processes which are totally different from the private sector. An exposure at early career stage either in any leading business chamber or with any government project can provide understanding of both sectors to continue therein or explore a shift for growth from one to another or may utilize the experience for startup ventures.
Interviewee Disclaimer- The views expressed by the interviewee are personal and the facts and opinion expressed here do not reflect that of employer organisation of the respondent in any manner. The readers are advised to make their decisions judicialy without being impacted by the nature of questions or answers.
