The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is
establishing a chapter in New York to facilitate communication and
co-ordination between the US and Indian accounting professions.

The chapter will provide continuing professional development
support and help identify professional and employment opportunities
for ICAI members. It will also act as a bridge between the ICAI and
US accounting bodies and provide a forum where members can discuss
and disseminate information.

The most important objective is that information from the US can
reach India more efficiently and the Indian profession can be
showcased in the US, ICAI president Ved Jain told The
Accountant. The chapter will provide an avenue for US-based
members to send their views and representations to the ICAI council
in India and provide a point for liaison between the Indian and
American accountancy bodies.

“[US-based members] understand the US position. They get
day-to-day information and some of them maybe members of the US
bodies also. So they will be in a better position to provide
information about liaising with those bodies and at the same time
they will be in a position to explain [the ICAI] position to those
bodies,” Jain said.

The institute has more than 1,000 members in the US and about
300 in New York.

The chapter office will be located in the Flushing Meadows area.
It will initially be run by six management committee member
volunteers.

The New York chapter is the institute’s 20th outside India. The
first was set up in Zambia and the largest, with about 1,000
members, is in Dubai. The smallest is in Papua New Guinea and the
next chapter is being earmarked for Singapore.

Jain said there are various activities earmarked for the
chapters. “One of the major initiatives is reaching out to our new
student base. We have seen that many of the students from abroad
are getting registered for our course and now to facilitate that
course we need to have chapters,” he said. “We are [also] now
allowing our articleship training abroad.”

The institute does not have accurate data on how many students
it has in the US. “Setting up this chapter will help with
consolidating that data,” Jain said.