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New curriculum to be operational soon

Hyderabad , June 2

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is embarking on a major brand-building exercise, targeting primarily students of high school standard, projecting the CA profession as one of the best career options with a lucrative pay package not only in the domestic but also overseas markets. All these years, the institute had focussed only on Plus-Two students. It has now realised that paying attention to students from high-school level itself could ensure best results.

Addressing newspersons here on Thursday, the ICAI President, Mr T.N. Manoharan, said there was an acute shortage of CA professionals in the domestic market despite highly attractive salaries. At present there are about 1,30,000 CAs in the country. While the institute has been producing around 7,500 CAs per annum now, the current demand is estimated at around 60,000.

Membership data

Scrutiny of recent membership data revealed that the new members joining the profession were being absorbed largely by the corporate sector and particularly the service sector, such as banking, telecom, finance and securities market intermediaries.

During last year, 7,455 newly qualified CAs joined the profession of whom only about 17 per cent chose practice while the balance 83 per cent opted for employment.

In recent campus interviews for CAs, as many as 102 leading corporates took active part and recruited 1,144 young CAs by offering them pay package of up to Rs 12 lakh per annum while the average package stood at around Rs 7 lakh.

Keeping in view the fast changing global economic and industrial scenario, the ICAI has gone in for updating its curriculum.

Having submitted the revised curriculum to the Government for its approval, the institute expects to receive the nod next month.

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