NELLORE: After medical and engineering professionals, it is now the turn of Chartered Accountants to put a prefix - C.A. to their names. "The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has permitted Charted Accountants to put the prefix similar to Dr. for professional doctors and Er. for engineers as part of the brand building exercise," ICAI president T.N. Manoharan said.

Expressing concern over the acute shortage of C.A.s, he said there was a need for more than 30,000 more CA professionals in the country every year in view of the boom in service sector, software, stock market and financial sectors.

Shorter course

Accordingly, the ICAI has revamped the CA course with a view to bringing it on par with other professional courses.

To begin with, we had revised the curriculum besides reducing the course duration from five-and-half years to four, he said.

General management principles and communication skills are also part of the syllabus. The institute had been waiting for approval from the Centre to introduce the new upgraded syllabus from November 2006, Manoharan told reporters on Tuesday.

He claimed that those selected had been drawing perks between Rs. 5 to Rs. 7 lakh on an average per annum and with Rs. 12 lakh being the highest and Rs 2.5 lakh the minimum.

Mr. Manoharan said the Human Resources Development (HRD) Ministry had asked the ICAI to prepare a model plan to check irregularities in the implementation of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan and the mid-day meal scheme. The Central Government has been spending Rs. 11,000 crore for the two schemes and ICAI had been preparing an action plan to monitor and systemise the operations of the schemes, he said.

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