ICAI to design global curriculum

Fri, 13 Jun, 2008,12:19 PM

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The Institute of Chartered Accountants (ICAI) in partnership with State governments is in the process of setting up centres of excellence to produce accounting professionals of global standards. Proactive initiatives to align the CA profession with the emerging global order and business environment were being taken by the ICAI.

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In this regard, a three-month residential course for those who had recently passed the Final exams or nearing their completion has been started from 28 April. This short-term programme focused on personality, professional skills, inter-personal skills, team work and problem solving ability among CA students. Campus recruitment has also been planned for students joining the programme which was being administered by the National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM). The participation of the three-month course would be treated as equivalent to articled training. In view of the growing popularity of the CA course in foreign countries, the persons of Indian origin who have settled abroad were keen to pursue CA curriculum designed by the ICAI. The Council at its meeting has approved guidelines for permitting students to do their articleship outside India. However, in order to ensure the quality of training, certain requirements have to be fulfilled by CA members who were into training students for articleship. Chartered accountants were eligible to train articled students provided their main occupation was the practice of accountancy at the time of engaging the students and also during each year of the qualifying years on the basis of which they could claim eligibility to train the budding professionals. On the idea of setting up centres of excellence in India, ICAI president Ved Jain said Rajasthan and Karnataka had allotted land for establishing the facility. Rajasthan had given 25 acres of land and Karnataka 10 acres of its land, he said. The Council has approved the setting up of a chapter of the institute in New York. The chapter would act as a bridge between the ICAI and the accountancy bodies in host countries to open up professional opportunities for its members. At present, the apex body has chapters in Saudi Arabia, Botswana, Nigeria, Riyadh, Botswana, London, Sydney and Muscat. Ved Jain said that the institute was working on an international course in CA by incorporating country-specific company and taxation laws starting with West Asia. He said the curriculum had been revised to keep the students abreast of latest developments in the accountancy. Jain said the decision to allow CAs to advertise their services would benefit small and medium practitioners to raise their brand visibility in the competitive market. To address various issues relating to public finance, the Council has formed committees at both Central and State levels which would analyse the budgetary expenditure, welfare schemes and end use of such funds. As part of its social responsibility, the institute would be joining hands with State governments to implement economic policies with financial disclosures and assist them in ensuring accountability in the deployment of public money, Jain said