Context: The Union Cabinet has approved the Companies (Second Amendment) Bill, 2019 to amend the Companies Act, 2013. This will  enable the listing of Indian companies on stock exchanges in foreign jurisdictions. 

• The amendment aims to recategorize 23 offences and omit 7 compoundable offences. Under the amendment, the companies with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) obligation of less than Rs 50 lakhs need not constitute a CSR committee.
• The CSR is a concept through which a company takes volunteer efforts in philanthropical programmes and adopt businesses that benefit society. The Injeti Srinivas Committee was constituted to review existing frameworks of CSR and strengthen its ecosystem. 
• The act is to be amended to make filings more scientific. A new Section 129 A is to be included that will file results of unlisted companies (under the act) on a periodic basis. This is to be done in addition to annual filing. 

Significance of such amendments: 

• Increase in investments: Currently Indian companies only have the option of American Depository Receipt (ADR) or Global Depository Receipt (GDR) route to tap foreign investors.
• Allowing domestic firms to list on foreign exchanges will have potential to increase investment.
• Broadening investor base and enhancing attractiveness: the proposed amendments  would increase the attractiveness of the technology sector, provide an alternative source of capital, and broaden the investor base.
• The amendments will help increase investments, especially foreign investments. This is mainly because, the amendment is to allow domestic firms to list on foreign exchanges. At present, Indian Companies have the option of GDR (Global Depository Receipt) and ADR (American Depository Receipt) alone.

About Companies act 2013: 

• The Companies Act, 2013 seeks to bring corporate governance and regulation practices in India at par with the global best practices.  
• The Ministry of Corporate affairs has notified 326 sections out of 470 sections of the Companies Act, 2013 which was enacted in August, 2013 while remaining 144 sections needs to be notified yet.
• Provision of self regulation with disclosures/transparency instead of government approval based regime.
• Corporate social Responsibility: CSR would be applicable to entities having at least Rs 5 crore net profit, or Rs 1,000 crore turnover or Rs 500 crore net worth.
• To ensure robust corporate governance framework, the law requires companies to mandatorily rotate their auditors, who would also have to report suspected fraud to the board.Stringent norms made for accepting the deposits from the public.