New CA curriculum rollout likely in July; AI, Blockchain in new syllabus: ICAI president

NEW DELHI: The Institute of Chartered Accountancy of India (ICAI) is likely to launch the new chartered accountancy curriculum for CA Foundation , CA Intermediate and Ca Final levels in July this year.

Addressing a press conference, president of ICAI, Aniket Talati said that the curriculum pending Centre's approval will be launched in July, which also marks the 75th anniversary of the institute. The curriculum was developed to ensure that CA students can become “global professionals”.

The curriculum, Talati said, has been realigned with the National Education Policy 2020 that will include multidisciplinary education and credit accumulation and transfer based on mutual recognition agreements (MCRA) with educational institutions. A student will be able to appear for one or two papers to get credits and qualification.

“The new curriculum will have subjects like Indian constitution, philosophy, and psychology which is in line with the NEP 2020. We are going to test students on multidisciplinary aspects because we do not want it to be rote learning rather a strong practical application based learning. The credit transfer will be enabled through MCRAs with which a student will be able to appear for one or two papers to get credits and qualification,” Talati told Careers360.

The ICAI has also introduced self-paced online modules, where working students can learn and qualify at their own pace. There are more than 7.5 lakh CA students currently registered with the ICAI.

CA syllabus and technology

Technology has also become a focus in the CA curriculum. Elaborating on the integration of technology with curriculum Talati said: “The institute has started training registered members on disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence, blockchain and data science. It will also find a crucial space in our new curriculum. Now technology will be part of all the papers.”

Talati further emphasised that the proposed curriculum emphasises more on skill-based learning, so that commerce graduates are armed with the right skills.

ICAI is also planning to launch a “New Scheme for Education and Training”, focussing on the development of higher-order skills of application, analysis and interpretation. A special feature of the new scheme would be the mandatory multi-disciplinary case study at the final level, which would help students integrate professional knowledge in different subject areas, analyse and apply such knowledge in problem-solving.

With regards to the Proposed Scheme of Education and Training, vice-president, Ranjeet Agarwal shared “Expert Groups were constituted for the formulation of syllabi and their suggestions were considered by the Board constituted by ICAI Council. On approval of the syllabi, it was submitted to MCA for approval.”

ICAI collaboration with IITs, IIMs

Moving beyond chartered accountancy, the ICAI has now forged ties with 111 higher educational institutions. In January, the institute conducted the first National Education Summit for Commerce and Accountancy (NESCA) to collaborate with universities. ICAI partnered with the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE) for the summit.

“ICAI is globally known for its courses in commerce and chartered accountancy. We have realised that accounting as a subject should not be limited to chartered accountants but should be made available to schools and colleges. We invited educators, deans, heads of universities and colleges to collaborate with us. We have created an exemplar for what kind of subjects should be taught in commerce. We have signed an agreement with 111 universities,” said Talati.

Among the 111 higher education institutions, the institute has signed agreements with seven Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) and two Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) which recognise the CA qualification for admission in the PhD programme. The ICAI further plans to extend courses related to commerce and CA to be introduced in school education.

“Moving forward we will extend this in the Class 11 and 12 school curriculum. In accounting, taxation and other commerce related subjects are under consideration. We have sent the new course curriculum for approval before the ministry and once it is approved more students will take interest in chartered accountancy,” Talati elaborated.

CA Articleship

The ICAI has also brought down the articleship period from existing three years to two years. CA Articleship is a practical training program mandatory to be a chartered accountant after completion of an academic degree.

“We thought why not have a two year articleship period where there are no requirements for communication skills courses or IIT courses and the student does not appear for the final examination during those two years. After completion of articleship, students will have ample time to prepare for the final examination which can be taken only after six months,” Talati explained.

According to the proposed plan, there will be only 12 days of leaves in a year for a CA aspirant. Currently ICAI grants 156 days of leave during the three-year CA articleship period subject to a maximum leave of 180 days.

CA Students: Northeast, Jammu and Kashmir

To widen its reach, ICAI had announced a 75 percent concession in registration course fee for all levels of CA courses to the students registering from Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh and eight North-East states, namely, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Andaman and Nicobar Islands till March 31, 2025.

“We are seeing good growth in northeastern and students in Leh-Ladakh region because of the concession we are giving. We have also started career counselling as well for students in Leh Ladakh and North Eastern states in India. We have observed that the penetration of chartered accountancy has been very less. The concession in fee and the career counselling initiative has got us good traction for the course,” said Talati.