CA Institute will soon issue international networking guidelines to enable domestic firms to spread their footprints abroad, its President Ranjeet Kumar Agarwal has said.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the largest accounting body in the world, will also review the Advertising regulations for its members to relax them in accordance with the current economic milieu and the requirements of a globalised business environment.
Currently, the ICAI does not have any specific international networking guidelines.
“This (framing international networking guidelines) is also a part of the terms of reference of our committee on ‘Aggregation of CA’ firms. We are of the opinion that this is also required if we want our Indian firms to be global,” Agarwal said in an interview here.
He also said that the review of advertising regulations is also part of the work agenda of the Committee on Aggregation of firms.
Right now, ICAI advertising regulation says Indian firms can advertise in digital, print, and electronic media as a write up, which cannot be in a font size above 14, he said.
Agarwal said that the Committee is expected to finalise its overall report by mid-June and then it will most likely be taken up by the Central Council in the first week of July this year.
‘Aggregation of CA firms’ and international networking is going to be a top priority for the CA institute in the next two months, he added.
Noting that ICAI is in a “fast track mode” on this front, Agarwal said that the Committee on Aggregation of CA Firms has already met thrice, and two more are scheduled this month.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in July 2017, during his address at the Chartered Accountants Day event called for creating four big Indian accounting firms that are counted among the world’s Big-8.
There are about 96,000 CA firms in India, with about 1.6 lakh practising chartered accountants. Of these, about 75,000 firms are proprietorships. Most firms are small and even seven years after Prime Minister’s exhortation, not much has been achieved on this front.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
In line with its new focus on Artificial Intelligence (AI), the CA Institute is developing a Gen AI tool for its members and students.
Currently, ICAI has about 4 lakh members and 9 lakh students.
ICAI has received 90 applications from various IT companies/ vendors to develop this tool.
“We want this GPT tool developed in the next three months. It will help our students and members to discharge their functions effectively using Artificial Intelligence. It will be a digital assistant for them,” he said.
Agarwal also said that ICAI is working hard on its e-office framework and asserted that by the end of June this year, the entire Institute would turn into a paperless body.
‘EACH ONE, TEACH ONE’ PORTAL
Agarwal also said that CA Institute would soon launch a portal for its ‘Each One, Teach One’ programme.
Under this programme, each CA Institute member will adopt one student to nurture, groom and hand-hold them.
“This portal will give us data on what kind of social work each member is doing on Each One, Teach One. Hopefully, very shortly it will start. It is a dream project for us. Portal will be called ICAI Each One, Teach One,” Agarwal said.
Asked about the status of CA examinations, Agarwal said that they are going on as planned and without any glitches or disturbances. Nearly 4.36 lakh students from 293 centres across the country are taking the May 2024 edition exams for Intermediate and Final courses.