The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
In the coming year, the primary goal of ICAI is to uphold the public confidence in this Institution and to create global Chartered Accountants by inculcating best international practices in them. The endeavor would be to bring ICAI in the forefront of economic activity and create a unique ICAI brand that would be recognized and treated with respect, not just in India but all over the world.
International Conference, Jan 6-8, 2012: Recognizing its responsibility to the stakeholders in general and members in particular; the ICAI is organizing an International Conference on the theme “Accountancy Profession: Leveraging Emerging Challenges for Inclusive Growth” at Chennai from Jan 6-8, 2012.
The International Conference is a forum of establishing interface for regions most influential thought leaders in the field of accounting, finance & business and participants from academics, researchers, practitioners and policy makers to share and gain fresh insights in cutting-edge information on global trends, issues and challenges. Participants would not only have the occasion to professionally upgrade but also have enough networking opportunities with vast segment of accounting fraternity which is likely to participate not only from pan India also likely to see significant delegations from SAARC Region and galaxy of International speakers and those from industry, government and other regulatory constituents. The thematic issues of the Conference are:
- Towards Globalized Accounting Framework - A Reality Check
- Value Creation through Innovation & Entrepreneurial Vision
- Professional & Social Panorama
- Accountancy Profession: Serving a Wider Landscape
- Financial Sector - Fulcrum of Inclusive Economic Growth
- Harmonization of International Auditing Standards - International & Indian Perspective
- Encouraging Good Governance through Market Mechanisms
- Emerging Paradigm of Accounting Profession
Corporate Forum at Bangalore on 9th and 10th December 2011: The Institute is organizing 5th Annual Corporate Forum on 9th and 10th December 2011 at Bangalore. The Corporate Forum would consist of five high profile events viz. Career Ascent, Gulf Campus, Corporate Conclave, Financial Services Expo and ICAI Awards-2011. Shri. N. R. Narayanan Murthy, Chairman Emeritus, Infosys Limited shall chair the Jury for the ICAI Awards 2011.
ICAI Awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting: The Institute holds annual competition for ‘ICAI Awards for Excellence in Financial Reporting’ with a view to recognize excellence in presentation of annual reports. This year, the function to honor the awardees would be organized on January 6, 2012 along with the International Conference at Chennai.
These awards are being presented annually since 1958 with selection of best entries, in specified categories being made through a robust three tier process. The Jury for the awards consists of eminent personalities from various walks of life. This year the distinguished Jury is to be chaired by Shri M. Damodaran, former Chairman, Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI).
The Institute is in the process of preparing a Vision 2030 document, aiming at positioning the profession at a higher pedestal and enabling professionals to embrace IT in all spheres. The Vision document shall look at the following points:
§ Reforms in Education: With a view on future, the ICAI is deliberating on introducing specialization, or otherwise, in specific streams like taxation, Corporate Finance, International Taxation, Audit, Information Technology and alike at the final level of its curriculum. Secondly, it is being deliberated to have mandatory training in a Corporate to expose the students to the corporate working environment for their personality development/career.
§ Professional Social Responsibility (PSR) Concept: It was also discussed to motivate the members of the Institute for greater participation in their duties towards the society at different forums like NGO’s, Whistle blower policy, green audit, social audit etc.
§ Research Enabling Environment: In order to foster creativity, innovation and gain knowledge of new things, it is being considered to create an ecosystem promoting research excellence both internally as well as externally. It was deliberated to allow staff to undertake research in different areas by joining hands with IIMs/Harvard/Wharton and other pioneering institutions across the globe. To identify areas of research and sponsor candidates for undertaking research, would be another important aspect.
§ Advanced Management Programmes: In the globalized time, it is important to develop advance skills with global perspective and therefore the Institute shall be organizing courses/programmes jointly in association with IIM, Harvard, Wharton and other Allied accounting institutions.
§ It has also been deliberated to empower and strengthen the work program of Financial Reporting Review Board (FRRB) to review reports of top-100 companies, increase its scope of work program and publish/publicize the outcome of FRRB findings.
§ Advisor to Ministry of Finance/Corporate Affairs on policy matters: In the times to come, the Institute should work towards becoming the sought after advisor on policy matters related to finance domain, Public Finance, Social Audit, Government Accounting, and black money prevention.
§ Forum for Accountants with IBSA/BRICS: The discussion also focused around for considering to give due importance to the developing countries while formulating policies for the accountancy profession. In this context, it was suggested that since most developing nations have the same concerns, these should be jointly raised at forum like BRICS/IBSA for effective resolution of issues concerning the developing nations.
§ Promote Accounting Firms to go global and provide able support: The Institute shall work in the direction of establishing presence of Indian firms globally. Interim MRA/MOU for membership equivalence are in progress.
§ International representatives and their growing presence to be emphasised: During the last couple of years, ICAI has been actively perusing international collaborations with different accounting institutions worldwide. ICAI shall take lead for development of Accounting profession in the countries where the accounting profession is in a primitive stage by proactively working with the countries in establishing accounting institutions and supporting framework. The ICAI has already been supporting countries like Mongolia, Djbouti, Oman, Dubai on this front.
An update on the various initiatives taken by the Institute for members, students and in other areas are mentioned below.
(A) Initiatives towards Nation building:
The Institute has sent a proposal to respective state governments as well as Union Government to allow Certified Chartered Accountants to audit the financial expenses of social welfare schemes and co-operative societies. The Institute has also requested the state governments to engage CAs to audit the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Guarantee Scheme.
Pre-Budget Memorandum, 2012: The Institute would be submitting Pre-Budget Memorandum for the Union Budget 2012-13 to the Government by the end of November, 2011. In this regard suggestions from all members from all over India were invited for the inclusion in Pre-Budget Memorandum.
Independent audits proposed for all co-operative societies, NGOs - ICAI has urged for independent information system audits to be made mandatory for all co-operative societies, NGOs and educational trusts apart from internal audits. The independent audit through chartered Accountants would ensure transparency and reduce the discrepancies.
Group formed to address the issue of Black Money: In the wake of the ongoing demand from various groups and political parties to bring the black money stashed in the overseas market, ICAI had constituted a Group to provide necessary inputs/suggestions on effectively addressing the issue of menace of black money, benami transactions and related issues in view of public interest attached. The group will submit its suggestions to Central Board of Direct Taxes by November, 2011.
HRD Working Group to Implement ASs in Educational Institutions: A group was formed for suggesting Accounting Standards for implementation in educational institutions of Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD having nominations both from the Institute and the Ministry. The report of the group is ready and will be submitted to the Ministry shortly.
ICAI being represented at various forums: The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has inked an agreement with the Ministry of Economic Affairs, Agriculture and Innovation of Netherlands on Corporate Governance and Corporate Social Responsibility. As per the provisions of agreement, Working Group in the areas of Corporate Governance, Corporate Social Responsibility and other aspects of Corporate Affairs need to be established by both sides. Accordingly, a Working Group has been constituted by the Ministry with Additional Secretary, MCA as the Chairman.
Programs to be organised with Government: Working Group for Concurrent Audits/represented by the ICAI along with RBI and IBA –Delegation of greater autonomy in financial operations, increase in volume of cross border business, greater international financial linkages, wider range of products and services and the growing diversities and complexities of banking business have increased the risks faced by banks manifold. Risk management and risk mitigation techniques have, therefore, acquired paramount importance in banking business. Reserve Bank of India, other regulatory authorities and the banks’ management need an assurance in risk management compliance. The increasing expectations of regulators, governments and professional bodies reflect the growing importance placed on Concurrent audit.
It has been decided to organize a series of joint Seminars with the Ministry of Home Affairs in various regions of the country to spread awareness among the stakeholders and the members about the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 2010 and the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Rules, 2011.The first programme would be scheduled at New Delhi.
(B) Initiative for Students
ICAI is taking several steps for the benefit of students appearing in November 2011 examination which include organizing special counselling programmes for the students by the Regional Councils and Branches thereof and conducting Mock Tests at the Regional and Branch level to enable the students to assess their preparation for the forthcoming examination. Further, this time the Revisionary Test Papers for November, 2011 were released in the month of August, 2011 much ahead of the Examination. The availability of such academic inputs would have certainly enhanced the preparation of students.
For the students who had to appear in November 2011 examination, the Institute had introduced a new format of machine readable answer books. To avoid inconvenience to students at the time of examination, the specimen of the answer sheets was hosted on Institute’s website. Through this initiative, the Institute had gone a step forward in the field of Information Technology.
(C) International Initiatives
The biggest issue before the institute is ‘globalisation of Indian accountants’. India is growing at a rapid pace. A lot of FDI is coming into the country, Indian companies are setting up offices abroad, acquiring firms overseas and merging in order to grow bigger and go global. As a part of International initiatives, ICAI would like to have strategic collaborations with more international accounting bodies so that it can provide a global outlook to CA members.
MoUs/MRAs with various Accounting Bodies: In order to achieve the same, ICAI has tied up with many accounting institutes in the past. The Institute has signed MoUs/MRAs with various Accounting Bodies namely:
o The Institute of Chartered Accountants in England & Wales
o The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Australia
o CPA Australia
o CPA Ireland
o Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants
Benefits to Overseas citizens of India: A group had been constituted by the Institute to consider appropriate steps for identifying a qualification bridging mechanism in line with the arrangements in place for MOU, MRAs with various International accounting bodies and feasibility of considering provision to be prescribed for licensing of Overseas Citizens of India and to work out the modalities therein. The Group has completed its task and a report including a Qualification Bridging Mechanism for Licensing Overseas Citizenships of India registered under Section 7B(1) Citizenship Act, 1955 is ready and under consideration.
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