Due diligence is a critical component of business transactions, providing buyers, investors, and lenders with comprehensive insights into the target company's financial, legal, and operational aspects. Financial due diligence involves analyzing financial statements, cash flows, and accounting practices to evaluate the target's financial health and performance. Legal due diligence entails reviewing contracts, litigation history, and regulatory compliance to identify potential risks and liabilities. Operational due diligence assesses the target's operational processes, systems, and capabilities to ensure alignment with the buyer's strategic objectives.

Secretarial audit is a specialized process aimed at ensuring compliance with various corporate laws, regulations, and guidelines governing a company's operations and corporate governance practices. This audit is typically conducted by a qualified company secretary in practice. The secretarial audit covers a wide range of areas, including compliance with the Companies Act, maintenance of statutory registers and records, adherence to board and shareholder meeting procedures, filing of statutory returns and disclosures, and compliance with regulatory requirements imposed by authorities such as SEBI, RBI, and other regulatory bodies. The objective of a secretarial audit is to identify any non-compliance or irregularities in corporate governance practices and recommend corrective measures to ensure legal and regulatory compliance, enhance transparency, and mitigate risks for the company and its stakeholders.