The Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Government of India, mandated two accounting institutes - ICWAI and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India to start new courses for accounting technicians. This was intended to fill the gap between supply and demand from the sectors as a shortage of one million personnel is anticipated in the field over the next three years.

Kunal Banerjee, President, ICWAI says, "Eligibility for the course is 10+2. We would be in a position to offer the course per haps in November this year. We expect to hold the exam in June 2009. The cost of the course would not exceed Rs 9000." The aim of the course is to create opportunities for poor students, particularly in rural areas, who cannot otherwise pursue an expensive course. The course would be available in both Hindi and English. "We are planning to have linkages with colleges, schools and universities in rural areas after reviewing their infrastructure for both postal and oral teaching," he says.

The duration of the CAT course will be a year. This will comprise examinations and computer training for 60 hours and practical training for six months. The orientation training programme will run for 15 days. It will consist of a foundation course comprising four papers and a competency level course comprising two papers.

The foundation course for entry into the professional ICWAI course and CAT would be common and the four papers would be the same. The CAT course has been so designed to ensure that a student can complete the course by branching out from the main course of the professional ICWAI syllabus.

A student, who has taken admission for the CAT course but is keen to pursue the ICWAI professional course, can now do so.