ICAI to set up advanced forensic lab for small, medium practitioners
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has over five lakh members, including small and medium accountants.
In a recent interview with PTI, Kumar said forensic auditing is a new field and small and medium-sized chartered accountant firms cannot participate in large auditing work as they do not have forensic auditing capabilities.
In this context, the institute will establish an advanced forensic science laboratory with a “pay and use model”. It will offer task-specific tools.
“We are setting up an advanced forensic audit laboratory at the Center of Excellence (CoE) in Hyderabad. We will operationalize it in the next 2-3 months,” Kumar said.
Meanwhile, there are larger government efforts to establish large domestic accounting firms that could help create more opportunities in the country’s growing economy and also compete on the scale of global players.
The institute published global networking guidelines in February, paving the way for creating large home-grown chartered accountancy firms that can also collaborate with global networks. ICAI is also gearing up to incorporate artificial intelligence, data analytics and other subjects into its curriculum as it works to keep pace with evolving technological and professional changes.
The institute recently established the Committee for the Review of Teaching and Learning (CRET), which is expected to finalize its recommendations, including curriculum updates, in the coming months.
In recent years, the accounting profession has witnessed a major transformation with increasing interest in non-financial reporting, ESG disclosures, artificial intelligence, data analytics and forensic auditing.
CRET will seek to integrate emerging technological and professional aspects into the CA curriculum.
Hundreds of students are pursuing the chartered accountant program at ICAI.
