The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India will begin its newly formulated course in July this year and plans to set up reading rooms and counseling centers through 700 districts of India. The ICAI is also planning to build a center for excellence in Srinagar with residential facilities where CA students will participate in different programs and there will be skill updation courses for qualified CAs as well.

"We are starting a fresh course from July 1 and the old course will not work then. Among other things, the articles have been reduced to two years from earlier three years," said Aniket Sunil Talati, president of the ICAI, who is in Srinagar for the 12th residential meeting of its members. The program is being attended by around 100 CAs currently serving in different capacities on all-India services, central services, and state services.

"This is a life-changing course that has the capacity to transform the lives of the immediate families and everyone around. For students from J&K and Ladakh ICAI provided a 75 percent fee waiver to encourage students," said Talati adding, "They can start preparing right after 10th standard and appear in the foundation level examination after 12th standard."

The inaugural session of the function will be held on June 18, in the presence of Lieutenant Governor of J&K Manoj Sinha and chief secretary of the union territory Arun Kumar Mehta. "We are a family of four lakh CAs and eight lakh students across the country. We want to reach to every district and help students by establishing reading rooms and career counseling centers," he said.

The ICAI president said that the institute organized multiple awareness events to connect investors and industry players with the ground and inform them about the benefits. "We are also focusing on startups and a convention on startups is being held in Mumbai on June 27 and 28. We also reached out to the MSME sector where we make them aware about the government plans and benefits," he said