New Delhi, January 09, 2008: Hon’ble Shri Prem Chand Gupta, Union Minister for Corporate Affairs, today formally announced a one year course on “Certificate in Accounting Technicians (CAT)”, offered by The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI). The Minister also announced the signing of “Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with CIMA, UK”.

ICWAI has signed a MoU with CIMA UK with an objective of progressing towards a Mutual Recognition Agreement (MRA), in order to enable mutual co-operation of the two Institutes to develop the profession of Management Accountancy for the benefit of their members and students in pursuit of excellence in education and training and continuing professional development in Management Accountancy.

ICWAI has launched course on Certificate in Accounting Technicians to address the heavy demand of trained accountants at junior level in India. The course will focus on imparting necessary skills to students to apply in practical situations in different functional areas of accounting and to provide on-job experience of practical aspects of accounting.

On this occasion, the Hon’ble Minister also released (1) Guidance Note on Internal Audit, and, (2) Guidance Note on Cost of Production for Captive Consumption under Central Excise Act published by the ICWAI

The Hon’ble Minister congratulating ICWAI on the initiative passed his message, “With the unprecedented growth of Indian economy in last two decades, there is a huge demand for accounting professionals. The present system has not been able to cater to the demand of the Industry. Numbers of accountng professional provided by ICAI and ICWAI are not sufficient since the courses are highly specialized and it takes more than four years for a person to qualifiy as Chartered Accountant or Cost Accountant.”.

Iterating the ICWAI’s vision, the President of ICWAI, Shri Kunal Banerjee said, “ICWAI has always worked towards providing quality education to the students, in order to provide best possible skilled accounting professionals to accounting fraternity. With this course, we intend to target tier II & tier III cities of India, so that, students from these cities can also acquire necessary skills to take up employment as Junior Accountants or Accountants in the areas of SME’s, BPOs, KPOs, Retail and other accounts related fields / sectors.

The MoU with CIMA, UK heralds an era of opening up of globalization for the Indian students. Never before the Indian students have had an opportunity on this scale to attain International accounting recognition at such a fast pace. We believe we have taken India closer to the nucleus of global accounting with this MoU.”

The CIMA President Glynn Lowth said in London:
“Management accountancy is a truly global profession and the signing of this Memorandum of Understanding reflects this. This historic collaboration with our Indian colleagues will enable both institutes to highlight the benefits of a professional management accountancy qualification, to share best practice and to train and develop the global business leaders of the future”.
 

About ICWAI

The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) is the only recognized statutory professional organisation and licensing body in India specialising exclusively in Cost and Management Accountancy. Institute of Costs and Works Accountants on India is a premier, dynamic and vibrant professional institution actively associating itself in the industrial and economic development of the nation.
The Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India (ICWAI) is a premier professional body of Management Accountants in the Country established on 28th May, 1959 under the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959 as amended by the Cost and Works Accountants (Amendment) Act, 2006 enacted by the parliament to regulate the profession of Cost and Management Accountancy in India.
The Institute is a founder member of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), The Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) and the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA). The institute, as a leader in the field of accountancy in the South Asian Region, is also imparting training to accountants from overseas countries.