Global demand for Indian Chartered Accountants: ICAI chief

With India set to usher in a new era of accounting reforms with the adoption of new Indian Accounting Standards converged with International Financial Reporting Standards, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India forsees a global demand for Indian CAs.

The new standards are to be converged with IFRS from 2015-16 on a voluntary basis and from 2016-17 mandatorily, and the ICAI was fully geared to facilitate the process in the country, its President K Raghu told reporters here.

The institute has already started a nation-wide exhaustive exercise to train members in the new standards, he said. There was huge demand for CAs in the country, he said adding there was lot of demand for chartered accountants in IT, Retail and Telecom sectors.

With Globalisation unfolding new vistas of opportunities, the ICAI has prepared Career E-kits for various countries. "We want more youngsters to choose global careers. There are lot of opportunities in countries like Singapore," he said.

There were plans to come with a new curriculum for CAs as per industry expectations and global demands. The draft of the curriculum had been approved, he said adding it was expected to be introduced by 2016. The curriculum is renewed every 10 years.

Four new certificate courses to promote specialisation has been introduced recently to help members build new skill sets. These include courses on 'Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), 'Financial Markets and Securities Laws, Wealth Management and Financial Planning and 'Information Systems security'.