ICAI holds a programme for Directors (Finance) and CEOs

Mumbai, July 30 (UNI) With a view to bring the members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in the country at par with changing business environment in the country, the Committee for Members in Industry of the ICAI held a day-long programme for Directors (Finance)/CEOs here.

The two topics that were discussed during the programme yesterday include restructuring of the company and the corporate governance of clause 49 of listing agreement issued by SEBI (Securities and Exchange Board of India).

More than 150 participants attended the programme. Talking to UNI on the sidelines of the programme, the chairman of the Committee, Harinderjit Singh, said, ''We want the members of the industry to update themselves with two things with the changing scenario that are IFRS (International Financial and Reporting Standards) and GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Principles).'' ''Nowadays the CAs are not only employed in the traditional fields like audit and accounting. Rather, they are switching over to new areas like finance, human resource, software development, telecom, insurance, media and others. It means that the new vistas have opened for CAs in such a way that their present strength of 1,30,000 all across the country was not enough to cater to the growing demand of CAs, which was just double of the figure,'' he said.

It was why the ICAI has decided to popularize its course through schools and colleges. Therefore, such programmes are being held in different parts of the country. After covering places like New Delhi, Chennai and Mumbai, now the committee has decided to hold it at places like Bangalore and Gurgaon by next month and then in places like Pune and Hyderabad. Likewise 10 such programmes are being held by the committee during the current year, he added.

The programme director, Uttam Prakash Agarwal, said, ''We have included corporate governance as one of the programme contents with a view to make the CAs competent enough to grab the jobs of higher responsibility which include independent directors of their respective companies.'' UNI KKD AR GB AW1714