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Commerce route

Company Secretary (CS)

You are the person inside a company whose job is to keep it on the right side of the law — every board meeting, every filing, every disclosure.

First question

What does this person do?

Indian law requires most large companies to employ a company secretary, and a lot of what a company must do legally runs through that one person. You call and run the board meetings, write the minutes that become the official record of what the directors decided, and make sure the company files the right forms with the government on time. When a listed company announces results, a merger, a new share issue or a change of director, you handle the disclosures to the stock exchanges.

You advise the directors on what the Companies Act, SEBI's rules and the exchanges will and will not allow, which sometimes means telling very senior people that they cannot do what they want to do. It is careful, deadline-driven, paperwork-heavy work with real legal consequences if it goes wrong.

Next question

What are they paid?

LPA = lakhs per annum; ₹1 lakh = ₹100,000. These are broad India market estimates across common employers and work settings—not guaranteed offers, audited statistics or the ceiling. References give context, not proof of each exact band. Historical anchors and evidence gaps remain in Sources.

  1. Entry first role

    Estimated range₹4.0–8.0LPA

    Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Listed-company, legal-compliance, consulting and smaller-company roles differ substantially.

    Commerce estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹7.5 LPA · midpoint median across 11 editorial Commerce routes · compare all routes

    Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated

  2. Mid about 5 years in

    Estimated range₹8.0–18LPA

    Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Listed-company, legal-compliance, consulting and smaller-company roles differ substantially.

    Commerce estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹16 LPA · midpoint median across 11 editorial Commerce routes · compare all routes

    Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated

  3. Senior about 10 years in

    Estimated range₹15–35LPA

    Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Listed-company, legal-compliance, consulting and smaller-company roles differ substantially.

    Commerce estimated midpoint at this rung: ₹27 LPA · midpoint median across 11 editorial Commerce routes · compare all routes

    Market reference: AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com Estimate dated

The vertical line marks the midpoint median of the editorial estimates for this stream. Published examples are excluded. Scale: ₹ lakhs per annum.

Hiring landscape

Who hires for this work?

Examples of large employers and institutions associated with this route in India:

  • listed companies
  • banks and financial institutions
  • corporate law firms
  • practising company-secretary firms

Examples, not a ranking or a promise of a current vacancy. Hiring changes; check the employer’s own careers page.

What it takes to get in

Entrance exam
CSEET (the CS Executive Entrance Test), then the Executive Programme, then the Professional Programme — all set by ICSI
Realistic cut-off
No rank, no percentile, no college admission. You clear CSEET after Class 12, then pass two more stages of exams. Graduates and some other qualification-holders skip CSEET and enter the Executive Programme directly. The filter is the exam pass rate across the stages plus finding a trainer for the compulsory training, not a cutoff score.
How long
4 years
Roughly what it costs

₹50,000

Using ICSI's fee schedule effective 15 April 2026: Rs 7,500 to register for CSEET plus Rs 1,500 per exam session; Rs 18,900 for the Executive Programme; Rs 20,000 for the Professional Programme; exam fees of Rs 1,500 per group at Executive level and Rs 1,800 per group at Professional level. That is roughly Rs 50,000 in institute fees end to end, before any private coaching. SC/ST and physically handicapped students get a 50 per cent concession, and students from Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh pay no CSEET registration fee.

Approximate, tuition only, excluding coaching and living costs unless the source text says otherwise.

Can you switch out later?
Moderate. The exams are self-study and can be combined with a BCom or a law degree, which many students do, so you keep a degree in hand. But the 21 months of training is a full-time commitment. Qualified CS members often add an LLB and move into corporate law, compliance and governance roles, and the qualification is well recognised inside legal and compliance teams — but it is narrow outside them.

Delhi entry paths

These are the routes people in Delhi commonly take into this career. This is not a ranking of institutions and does not list cut-offs for any particular college.

  • Register with ICSI for CSEET directly after Class 12 — there is no college admission involved
  • ICSI's headquarters and its Northern Region office are in Delhi (ICSI House, Lodi Road), and Delhi has among the largest concentrations of CS students in the country
  • Most students pair the CS course with a BCom or a BA at a Delhi University college, or with an LLB later, so that they hold a degree alongside
  • The 21 months of compulsory training is served with a practising company secretary, a company, or a recognised body such as the Registrar of Companies, SEBI or the Ministry of Corporate Affairs — all of which have offices in Delhi

How this compares

Nearby routes in Commerce, ordered by mid-career pay. Ordering is not a recommendation.
RouteEntryMidSenior
Financial planning and wealth management₹3.0–8.0 LPA₹7.0–18 LPA₹15–35 LPA
Company Secretary (CS) (this route)₹4.0–8.0 LPA₹8.0–18 LPA₹15–35 LPA
Economics degree (policy, research and financial regulation)₹4.0–10 LPA₹8.0–20 LPA₹15–35 LPA
Cost and Management Accountant (CMA)₹5.0–10 LPA₹10–20 LPA₹18–35 LPA
Running a business (entrepreneurship and family business)₹0.0–12 LPA₹0.0–30 LPA₹0.0–60 LPA

See all 57 routes side by side →

Sources

  1. Institute of Company Secretaries of India www.icsi.edu

    2026-04-15: ICSI official schedule of fees applicable to students of the CS course with effect from 15.04.2026: CSEET registration Rs 7,500 (inclusive of Student Induction Programme and online classes) and exam fee Rs 1,500 per session; Executive Programme total Rs 18,900; Professional Programme total Rs 20,000; examination fees of Rs 1,500 per group (Executive) and Rs 1,800 per group (Professional); and the category concessions.

  2. Institute of Company Secretaries of India www.icsi.edu · may be dated

    2024-01-01: ICSI Student Training Guidelines 2024: 21 months of practical training under Regulation 46BB of the Company Secretaries Regulations 1982, a minimum monthly stipend of Rs 5,000 payable to the trainee through banking channels, and the list of eligible training organisations including the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Registrar of Companies and SEBI. 2024-01-01: Historical evidence gap for the entry rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: ICSI does not publish placement or salary statistics for newly qualified company secretaries. What it does publish is the training pay: before you can become a member you must complete 21 months of practical training, during which the minimum stipend the trainer must pay you is Rs 5,000 a month — about Rs 0.6 lakh a year. That is training pay, not the salary of a qualified CS, and no verifiable figure for the first year after qualifying could be found.

  3. Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited bvfcl.com

    2026-06-01: Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation Limited (a Government of India undertaking) advertisement HR/11/2026/02: Assistant Manager (Company Secretary) requires an ICSI associate member with a minimum of five years' post-qualification experience at an approximate annual CTC of Rs 11.3 lakh; Deputy Manager (Company Secretary) requires a minimum of eight years at an approximate annual CTC of Rs 13.7 lakh. 2026-06-01: Historical published anchor for the mid rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: This is one public-sector employer's published number, not a national average. Brahmaputra Valley Fertilizer Corporation, a Government of India company, advertised an Assistant Manager (Company Secretary) post in 2026 requiring an ICSI member with a minimum of five years of post-qualification experience, at an approximate annual CTC of Rs 11.3 lakh. It is a government pay grade at a plant in Assam. Private-sector company secretary pay is not published anywhere that can be verified, and in large listed companies it is likely higher. 2026-06-01: Historical published anchor for the senior rung; not validation of the displayed estimate: Same advertisement, one grade up: Deputy Manager (Company Secretary), requiring a minimum of eight years of post-qualification experience, at an approximate annual CTC of Rs 13.7 lakh. Again, a single public-sector employer. The company secretary of a large listed company is a Key Managerial Person whose pay is disclosed in that company's annual report and is far higher than this, but there is no published figure for a typical ten-year CS.

  4. AmbitionBox www.ambitionbox.com

    2026-08-21: Broad India market estimate, not a guaranteed offer or audited statistic. Listed-company, legal-compliance, consulting and smaller-company roles differ substantially.