Certified Financial Planners a must, says Industry

Mumbai, Dec19 (UNI) Around 50,000 Certified Financial Planners(CFP) is the need of the hour for a growing economy like India to urgently augment its financial, industrial and economic structure for longevity and survival, said Financial Standards Board(FPSB) India Chairman Shailesh Haribhakti.

In the first of its kind Human Resource Managers (HRM) summit held here today, Haribhakti advocated the need to institute a right, fair, objective, consistent and free of bias financial advice ''Body'' for HR managers cutting across all spheres of trade and economic activity.

He said proper education and training acts as a catalyst for new comers and on the job proffesionals to chart out concrete long term productive business policies. And the role of FPSB is to create trained and certified CFPs and Associate Finance Planners (AFP) to bolster a new wave in the Indian industry.

According to Group Chief and HR Officer for ICICI Bank Ltd Ram Kumar, HR departments across the country still follow ideas and recruitment policies of the 70's and 80's when the country had a 4.5 to 5 per cent Gross Domestic Product(GDP).

He said that Indian firms mainly depend on borrowed foreign concepts and practices to tackle management issues in their organizations.

''It is unfortunate that even after a decade of unprecedented growth, the industry is unable to scout original ideas and management practcies'', he said.

Stressing the need for an urgent overhaul of the present academic system, Kumar stated that 90 per cent of commerce graduates in the country were of no use to the industry.

While MBA holders can be well described as a gang of ''Elite Consulants'' who can best give you ideas, which can be implemented 15 years down the line.

Appealing to the large business cvommunity, Kumar stressed that business houses must recruit educated freshers from rural background without stressing on the need for spoken English as a criteria or virtue. As a result, a large number of the populace will be able to particpate in the economice upliftment of the country.

This will also increase the availability of trained people in the market and also reduce capital expenditure of firms by avoiding excessive pay packages to a select few, who gets rotated in the industry circles, he said.

Established in 2000, as Association of Financial Planners India (AFPI) and later christened as FPSB, India in 2005, FPSB, India is a section 25 firm under the companies act and an affiliate of the FPSB USA, based in Denver, Colorado.

It is a non-profit, professional membership and certificate organisation, with a mandate to proffesionalise the financial planning Industry. In addition, FPSB, India overseas the administration of the internationally recognized CFPcm certification process.

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