The Chartered Accountant

FROM THE PRESIDENT
Information Technology & Strategic Management;
and Auditing & Assurance. Details and
the procedure have been published elsewhere
in this issue of the journal and are also available
on the Institute’s website. In the era of
globalization, the coming together of two
largest chartered accountancy bodies in the
world heralds a new era for the accountancy
profession. This agreement will facilitate mobility
of members across the borders. It goes
without saying that the signing of this MoU
is a recognition of the high level of the education
and training which a student of ICAI
undergoes before he becomes a full-fledged
member of it.
Convocation Ceremony at Mumbai
and Delhi
I am delighted to inform you that we have recently
initiated the practice of organizing convocation
for new Chartered Accountants. The
first such convocation for the Western Region
was held on 9th November, 2008 at Mumbai
and the second convocation for the Northern
Region was held on 16th November, 2008 at
Delhi, where I handed over Membership Credentials
to more than 1200 young torch bearers
of the profession. It was heartening to
feel the sense of pride and camaraderie among
the new entrants to the profession. I am sure
this new practice will in time become a tradition
and will flourish in days to come and
will strengthen professional bonding, sense of
belongingness to the Institute and also help in
brand building.
National Cultural and Sports Competitions
To create awareness among school students about
the choice of their career and encourage them to
join CA course, a national debate competition is
going on for students of Class XI and Class XII
in different parts of the country. I am happy to
inform you that so far this national debate competition
has been held at more than 55 branches
in the country in which more than 12,000 students
of 600 schools have participated. The feedback
which I have received from the branches is
very encouraging. This debate competition has
helped the Institute to reach out not only to the
students, but also to their parents and teachers,
besides sensitizing the students on various con-
temporary issues on which the debate is being
held.
Continuing this process further and in order
to encourage CA students to take part in extra-curricular
activities, it has been decided to
organize a National Cultural Competition in
various streams such as dance, drama, music
- vocal and instrumental, etc. at each of our
branches. Similarly, to encourage sports activities
amongst CA students, it has been decided
to organize a National Sports Competition
(carom, chess, tennis, badminton, table tennis,
etc.) at each of our branches. This competition
will be open to all CA students including
CPT students. Winners at the branch level will
participate in the competition at the regional
level and thereafter at the national level. I
hope you will agree that encouraging cultural
and sports activities among CA students will
go a long way in helping them to develop an
all round personality. It will also show to the
world that CA students do not lag behind in
these areas. And possibly in the years to come,
many of our students and members will bring
laurels to the Institute by excelling in cultural
and sports activities.
Three-months Residential Programme
for Students
I am glad to tell you that a major milestone
achieved this year has been the starting of the
three months’ residential programme on Soft
Skills Development for CA students. The first
two batches of this programme were conducted
with the help of National Institute of Financial
Management, Faridabad, benefiting 107
Chartered Accountancy students. Encouraged
by the response, the third Soft Skills Development
programme is scheduled to start from
December 1, 2008 at Jaipur. The venue of this
programme is the LNM Institute of Information
Technology, Jaipur, which is spread over
100 acres and has a calm and serene academic
environment. Among other things, it will also
help in enlarging the geographical spread of
the programme. It would be my endeavour to
replace the present 15-day General Management
and Communications Skills course by
this 3-months residential programme so that
all students are able to reap its benefit.
May I also inform you that work on the ICAI’s
THE CHARTERED ACCOUNTANT 947 DECEMBER 2008