Introduction

Do you want to become an independent director?

Do you want to be appointed by the Board of a large company?

Have you worked in the corporate sector for several years? Do you want to explore new areas to leverage your experience to contribute to the corporate sector?

Do you have a decade or more of experience in finance, law, management, sales, marketing, research, corporate governance, operations or other areas relating to a company’s business?

Are you retired/ approaching retirement and considering lucrative part time options to generate income and also utilise your decades of work experience?

You can become an Independent Director and be appointed to the Board of Directors of large companies in India.

There is an increasing demand for skilled independent directors, as more and more companies are coming under the requirement of having a minimum set of independent and non-executive directors. Owing to amendments in the Companies Act, rapid formalization of Indian SMEs and exponential growth of startups, every listed company, a large company with paid up capital in excess of Rs. 10 crore or turnover of more than Rs. 100 crore or outstanding loans, debentures and deposits of more than Rs 50 crore or a funded startup which plans to do an IPO, must appoint at least one-third of independent directors if it is a public unlisted company.

Thus Independent Directors play a very important role in the governance of a company, by ensuring that the decisions of the board of directors are impartial, without any conflict of interest thereby preventing any instances of misgovernance in the functioning of the company. As an independent director, you have to attend board meetings of listed companies, go through their financial documents, ask questions to ensure that appropriate checks and balances are in place and you can earn really well doing this.

Serving as an Independent Director is a matter of great prestige for an individual. With the 2020 amendment in Schedule V of Companies Act, 2013, the Independent Directors can be remunerated annually from Rs.12 lakhs (in case of negative effective capital) to Rs. 24 lakhs plus 0.01% of the effective capital in excess of Rs.250 Crores. The best part about this profile is that there is no retirement age, it is part time, and your past work experience continues to give you rich rewards, once you have cracked.

Factors like digitisation, post pandemic government reforms such as UPI, formalisation and high economic growth potential of India are encouraging more informal sector businesses to create corporate structures, raise venture capital funding and scale up, so the opportunity is ever expanding.

Currently there are 20,798 registered Independent Directors, out of which 10,805 candidates have already passed the Independent Directors’ exam.

With almost 22 lakh companies in India, 1.67 lakh incorporated companies and 7.5 K listed companies at least 5 to 10 times more Independent Directors are needed right now.

Even if you are an executive director, CEO, CXO or a startup founder qualifying this exam sends a strong signal that you are conversant with corporate governance best practices.

To become an independent director, you need to qualify an exam.

Who should attempt the test?

All independent directors whose names are registered with the Independent Director Database, and
Professionals planning to become independent directors and have registered themselves with the Independent Director Database
HR managers, compliance professionals and entrepreneurs are equipped to attempt the Independent Directors' exam and serve the role of an independent director on the board of a company.

Who is eligible to become Independent directors?

Section 149(6) of Companies Act, 2013 lays down the eligibility criteria for an Independent Director.

This clause is exclusionary in nature and rather tells us who may not become an independent director for a company

As the name suggests, an independent director needs to be impartial, thus a person who is already in the capacity of a Promoter or a Director or a relative of the Promoter or Director of either the Company or its subsidiary he/she is not eligible to become an Independent director. Similarly if a person has any pecuniary relationship with the company’s holding, subsidiary or associate company or their promoters or directors during 2 years they may not hold the given position.

However, registering oneself in the Independent Directors database may make the person eligible to hold this position in any company provided they do not fall against the above criteria.

Duties of an Independent Director:

Bring an independent and objective view on the Board of Directors deliberations.
Scrutinize the performance of the management, including the Board.
Ensure the integrity of the Financial statements and risk management system.
Protect the interests of all stakeholders, specially the minority shareholders.
Balance conflict of interests and determine remuneration of the directors and other Key Managerial personnels.

Why is the self-assessment proficiency test important?

Rule 6(4) of the Companies (Appointment and Qualification of Directors) Rules, 2014 has made it mandatory for all independent directors who names are registered with the Independent Director Database to pass the online proficiency self-assessment test, conducted by the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) within a period of two years from the date of inclusion of his name in the databank.

Failing to pass the proficiency test within the above mentioned period shall result in removal of name from the databank of the IICA.

The best part is that there is no limit on the number of attempts an individual may take for passing the online proficiency self-assessment test.

Course Structure

Sl. No.	Topic	Notes	Pre- Recorded Videos	Live Classes	Recorded Sessions (For Revision)	MCQs (In Quiz Format)
1	Companies Act, 2013	Yes 58	Yes 361	Yes 40	Yes	Yes 75
2	Securities Law	Yes 7	Yes 12	Yes 8	Yes	Yes 10
3	Basic Accountancy	Yes 3	Yes 7	No	No	Yes 5
4	Governance	Yes 12	No	No	No	Yes 5

Course Details

A student will be provided the following-

Total Number of MCQs: 1500+
Total Number of Notes: 200+
Total Number of Live Classes: 48 (2 live classes per week)
Total Number of Pre-recorded Videos: 400+
Total Number of Case Study: 7

Successful alumni who secured appointments as independent director

Manoj Sonawala, (April 2023 batch) is a professional with 30 years of experience and expertise in corporate governance, corporate law, ESG strategies, etc. secured an appointment as an Independent Director at DY Export Import Limited, Garware Hi-Tech Films and other 2 companies.

Manoj Sonawala

Steve Pereira, (March 2023 batch), is a professional with 20+ years of experience in the hospitality sector, cleared the ID exam in December 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Z-tech (India) Ltd and Sat Kartar Shopping, an ayurvedic store.

Steve Pereira

M. K. Sateesh, (January 2023 batch), is a professional with four decades of experience in the manufacturing and construction sector, cleared the independent director exam in May 2023 and secured an appointment as an independent director at Kirtiman Agro Ltd. and Delta Engineering.

M. K. Sateesh

Rangaraj Ravindran, (December 2022 batch), a professional with 34+ years of experience in the Automotive and Engineering sectors of India and Oman, cleared the ID exam in April 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Inspire Films Limited.

Rangaraj Ravindran

Yakub Bhetasiwala, (August 2023 batch) a managing director at Sharon Controls India Pvt Ltd, with 21+ years of experience, cleared the ID exam in July 2023 before joining our course. After following our strategies he secured an appointment as an Independent Director at CORE Energy Systems Limited.

Yakub Bhetasiwala

Ullas Pradhan, (June 2023 batch), a sales and business development professional, cleared the ID exam in October 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Aesthetik Engineers Ltd, Kolkata, a glass product company.

Ullas Pradhan

Suman Choudhary, (August 2023 batch) a professional with two decades of consulting experience in the field of Agriculture, Rural Development and Agri Infrastructure, cracked the Independent Directors exam in October 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Zappfresh, a food delivery company.

Suman Choudhary

Dilip Sharma, (April 2023 batch), a professional with over 27 years of experience in finance, administration, and business process management, cleared the ID exam in July 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Sun TV, a media and entertainment company.

Dilip Sharma

Honey Pamnani, (November 2023 batch) is a professional with 12+ years of experience in Business Development, Public Policy and technology enablement, currently residing in Delhi, and secured appointment as an Independent Director at Stemrobo, an edtech company.

Honey Pamnani

Nimisha Shah, (January 2023 batch), a professional with 24 years of experience working for MNCs with manufacturing setups, cleared the ID exam in August 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Pranik Logistics Limited. She received another offer for an appointment from a company.

Nimisha Shah

Dr. N. Ganga Vidya, (May 2023 batch), a professional with 25 years of expertise in ESG consultancy and as a Management Professor, cleared the ID exam in August 2023 and secured an appointment as an independent director at Solar91 - Energizing India Limited.

Dr. N. Ganga Vidya

Golock Chandra Sahoo, (May 2023 batch), is a retired Senior Audit Officer from the Indian Audit & Accounts Department. He cleared the exam in June 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Ganesh Infra, a real estate company.

Golock Chandra Sahoo

Sanjay Roye, (August 2023 batch) has 36+ years of experience in the Indian Navy. He cracked the ID exam in August 2023 and secured an appointment at Sachee Rome Ltd., India’s no. 2 FnF (Fragrance and Flavor) B2B company.

Sanjay Roye

Vivek Talmale, (June 2023 batch), working as a consultant, boasts for over 30 years, in the fields of Operations, Strategy, and P&L Management. He resides in Nagpur, cleared the exam in September 2023 and secured an appointment as an Independent Director at Cashurdrive, an advertising company in October 2024.

Vivek Talmale

Training Methodology

Online 24/7 access

Access to basic study material through an online learning management system, Android and iOS app

Live Online Classes and Mocks

1 topic-wise mock in every class | 5-subject-wise mocks to practice answers | 6 full length monthly mocks.

Convenient Class timings

Classes are held after regular work hours. Typically classes are kept on Sunday afternoon or 7-8 pm on other days.

Live Doubt Clearing

You can ask questions, get your doubt cleared live as well as through online forums

Certification

Clearing a competitive examination is not always in your hands. Despite your best effort, a paucity of seats, delays in the exam opening, or other unforeseen circumstances beyond your control may mean you do not secure a place, and you may need to explore opportunities in other sectors.

Preparing for IICA Independent Directors’ Exam already gives you real knowledge of Corporate Governance. Through the Training Program to Crack the Independent Directors’ Exam (ID) you are imparted further skills in the same area, and you are then tested on them.

On clearing that assessment you receive the certificate Professional Certificate in Corporate Governance & Board Leadership for Independent Directors (IICA Proficiency Specialization) — co-branded with NSDC and Skill India, and verifiable by QR code.

That certificate lets you prove this knowledge when you pursue other employment opportunities. You can add it to your CV and LinkedIn, share it with any employer, and point to it in interviews as evidence of what you know.

This matters most if you decide to move to the private sector, where employers hire for exactly this expertise and the roles are far more open than IICA Independent Directors’ Exam.

Certificate

Money-back guarantee

If you take this course, follow it diligently for a month, do all the exercises but still do not find value in it, or not able to understand or follow it or not find it good for any reason, we will refund the entire course fee to you. It is a 100% money-back guarantee with only one condition, you must pursue it properly for a month. If you don’t find it valuable after that, get your entire money back.

View Refund Policy

Here are some of our faculty members

Mr. Manash Mandal

Mentored 800+ students across India for prestigious national-level exams, including SEBI Grade A (Law Officer), IBPS SO (Law Officer), Limited Insolvency Examination, and Independent Director's Online Proficiency Test.

Ms. Gagandeep Kaur Saluja

Member of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI) & Law Graduate from University of Delhi and Post Graduate in Master in Business Administration in Finance.

Mr. Kapileshwar Bhalla

23 years of teaching experience in CA, ACCA, IFRS, CPA - USA, and CMA - USA courses. Kapil has also conducted corporate training in finance, IFRS, Ind AS/IGAAP

Ms. Garima Khanna

Director - Test Prep

Mr. Rahul Jain

Qualified Independent Director, Teaches Corporate Law in the Course. Have a vast experience of teaching statutes of Corporate & Business law including The Companies Act, 2013. He is an expert in complying with company law, foreign exchange regulations, FEMA, banking rules & regulations, information technology laws, data privacy Laws, secretarial standards and governance, and statutory compliances. Along with it, having a practical experience of 7 years of litigation before the Hon’ble Punjab & H

Ms. Pranjul Barche

A qualified Chartered Accountant and L.L.M.

Note: This is an indicative list of our guest faculty members and not an exhaustive list. We may change the faculty members at any point based on availability.

Syllabus

COMPANIES ACT

Incorporation of Companies (Chapter II, Companies Act, 2013) Prospectus and Allotment of Shares (Chapter III) Share Capital (Chapter IV) Debenture and Bonds (Chapter IV) Acceptance of Deposits (Chapter V) Management and Administration (Chapter VII) Accounts of Companies (Chapter IX) Corporate Social Responsibility (Chapter IX) Audit and Auditors (Chapter X) Appointment and Qualification of Directors (Chapter XI) Related Party Transactions (Chapter XII) Liability of Directors and KMP (Chapter XII) Board Committees (Chapter XII) Board Meetings (XII) Secretarial Audits (Chapter XIII) Mergers and Amalgamation (Chapter XV) Oppression and Mismanagement (Chapter XVI) Secretarial Standard 2 Professional Ethics for Independent Directors. (Schedule IV, Companies Act, 2013 - Code for Independent Directors)

SECURITIES LAW

SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Requirements) Regulations, 2015

BASIC ACCOUNTANCY

How to Read a Balance Sheet? Understanding Financial Statements

GOVERNANCE

Due Diligence before joining a Board Exemplary Board Board Effectiveness and Culture Building Resilient Company: Board’s Role Governance of Committees Governance of Strategy Managing CSR and Engaging Stakeholders Board Evaluation Evaluation of Independent Directors Case Study (WorldCom, Enron Corporation, Volkswagen, Olympus, Hydro One, Satyam and Maruti Suzuki)

Course Plan

Above prices are inclusive of all applicable taxes and charges.

Standard

RS. 63000 incl. of all charges

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- 1 online live class/ week

- 2 practical or drafting exercises per week

- Get digital access to entire study material

Hardcopy study materials- available on additional charges.

- Access on LMS, Android & iOS app

- Instructor feedback on assignments

- Unlimited doubt clearing sessions.

- Instructor led course with online live classes

- Online exams (give exams as per your convenience on given time slots)

- Certificate (by courier)

- CV enhancement

- Coaching for professional networking

- Training for writing and publishing articles

- Internship & Job Support

- Interview preparation guidance

- Access to updated content online for 3 years

- Top students are recommended to law firms and companies (as applicable)

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Independent Directors’ Professional Development Program

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