With the Union government making it mandatory for all listed companies to have a woman director on their board from this year, industry body CII's Kerala unit and Institute of Directors will be organising a three day training course to equip women for the position here.

"Over a period of next two years, we will need hundreds of qualified trained women to serve as directors on the board of listed companies in the state," CII Kerala state council Chairman and Managing Director of Geojit BNP Paribas Financial Services C J George told reporters here.

As per the new Companies Act every listed company should have a woman director. This will become mandatory from this financial year starting April.

CII with Indian Women Network (IWM) and Institute of Directors will organise the programme for senior women professionals to become board members. After the training, certificates would also be issued to the women, he said.

As far as women empowerment is concerned,this is the most remarkable initiative of the Central Government, George said.

In Kerala, there are very few women directors. The state will need close to 200 women directors for an equal number of listed companies this year, he said.

The training fee is expected to be Rs 30,000. A certificate would be issued to them stating that they would become eligible to sit as directors in the board.

CII is also planning to bring out a compiliation of best practices adopted as CSR activities in Kerala. With this publication, CII intends toprovide guidance to organisations planning to invest inCSR activities, especially in the light of mandates introduced through the new Companies Bill 2012.

CII has identified about 30 projects available with Cochin Corporation which can be taken up by Corporates as part of their CSR projects.

George said CII would organise the third edition of Brand summit on Mar 4 the theme of which is 'Building brands in the Age of Transparency'.

Among the speakers are Aruna Sundararajan, Managing Director of Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, well known film director BharatBala and Manish Saksena, Chief Operating officer, Tommy Hilfiger.