Dear Professional Colleague,
Greetings from Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI)!
In this era of technology, we are witnessing change in the way in which businesses are being managed or transactions are taking place across the global physical boundaries. Accountancy profession is not immune to these changes, and a lot of these changes are taking place in accounting domain as well.
Among many focused areas, technology is one such area which has always remained at forefront and has received continuous attention of the ICAI Council with the overall objective to provide best in class experience to all stakeholders specially our members and students. Be it related to learning, service delivery or to the internal processes improvement, the ICAI and its Council has always endeavored to adopt best technological platforms. With this objective, one of the important activities of our Action Plan 2020-21 is ‘Harnessing Technology – Building a Proactive Institution’.
Hard times like these can stop our physical movement but cannot control our fighting spirit and our quest for knowledge. Using technology, we have provided every tool, resource and means for your skill development, capacity building and knowledge enrichment. With the constant support and inputs of all Council Colleagues, many initiatives have been undertaken and with this instant communication, we are pleased to share with you some of the technology-oriented initiatives undertaken by your ICAI for the benefit and betterment of all:
A. Anytime, Anywhere Learning
Members
1. Digital Learning Hub – Now equipped with as many as 150 different short online programmes/courses ranging in the areas of Accounting and Auditing Standards, digital insights, capacity building, direct taxes and many others providing as many as 50 structured CPE Hours. About 8,000 members have started their virtual learning in a peer-to-peer eco-system of professionals from across the nation.
2. Virtual CPE Meetings providing Structured CPE Hours without any fee being charged till August 2020.
3. ICAI TV (www.icaitv.com) is the online video platform for ICAI wherein the stakeholders can view the various educational, informative and event related webcasts and videos of ICAI. The same is being revamped as per need of the hour.
Students
4. Virtual Revision Learning Classes have been started providing a Free of Cost access to the quality lectures and videos from experts across the country in order to prepare our students for examinations.
5. Virtual AICITSS (Adv.IT/MCS) platform to complete Adv.IT/MCS training for (i) already passed CA students making them eligible to take ICAI membership, and (ii) to facilitate students who are yet to appear in November, 2020 Final Examination so as to enable them to appear in exams.
6. Integrated e-books – with embedded lectures available on Digital Learning Hub.
B. Serving Digitally
7. Self Service Portal for Students, Members and the Firms – The portal (https://eservices.icai.org/) has enabled execution of a host of services related to students and members on a self-service mode. New services are being identified, automated and enabled on the portal which can be completed on self service mode. The Portal will further integrate with other systems to readily provide information to the students and members community for various services.
8. ICAI e-Sahaayataa (https://help.icai.org) is used to address the queries, complaints and grievances of our stakeholders pertaining to the day to day working of the Institute. Grievances are being expeditiously catered to and are being resolved.
9. Centralized Distribution System – This portal (https://icai-cds.org/) has been developed for providing study material to Newly Registered Students at their doorstep and to sale ICAI publications to Students, Members and other stakeholders online. Anyone interested can sign up and place their orders on online store.
C. Enhanced Visibility and Opportunities
10. New ICAI Website – Keeping in mind the industry best practices, the website www.icai.org has been revamped to bring a new look and feel and make it in sync with the changing times and technology to further enhance the experience.
11. Article Placement & Industrial Training portal (https://app.icai.org/)- bridging the gap between a host of illustrious companies and the CA students, who are hunting industrial training opportunities, this portal will act as a catalyst of growth by improving the quality of skill-development and real practical learning.
12. Separate CABF Portal and Scholarship Portal are being developed and unveiled soon.
D. Connecting Digitally
13. ICAI’s Mobile App(ICAI Now – www.icai.org/mobile) has brought revolution in disseminating information to empower members, students and other stakeholders with knowledge and expertise. The app has been already downloaded by 5 lakhs+ users. It has been rated as 4.2/5 on App Store and listed in top 100 Free Education Category.
14. Embracing Social Media – All the stakeholders can follow ICAI’s page on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube & Instagram to catch up on the latest news, Important Announcements, press releases and updates and to interact with Fellow members and exchange views on matters of professional relevance. Our presence on different platforms has almost doubled in last 6 months which has now crossed 8,00,000+ users.
E. Reforming Internal Processes
15. E-meeting solutions were enabled for paperless meetings with all the features like online reading, search, annotation, etc. Almost all the meetings are now held in the paperless mode with smooth and exceptional experience. This is helping in the reduction of costs for ICAI and supporting our Go Green Initiatives.
16. e-Hearing for the Disciplinary cases has been started and also launched new website (https://disc.icai.org/) for disciplinary mechanism.
17. Internal Note Portal – In sync with e-Governance & Paperless Initiatives of Indian Government, ICAI Internal Note Portal has been started for making the Internal note approval process paperless and to effectively streamline the process.
18. We have also initiated the process of establishing National Call Centre and promote e-governance by providing Digi–Locker
F. Examination related Reforms
19. Digital Evaluation – Adopting 100 per cent digital evaluation of answer sheets in ICAI Examinations.
20. Re-Verification – Using digital processes, result of the re-verification of answer sheets is to be made available within 7 days of application.
21. Reducing the time lag between exams and results by 15-20 days.
With the above initiatives and constant thrust on change, simplification, and adoptability, we are able to sail through these testing times with minimum possible disruptions. Looking forward for your feedback on the same.
With regards,
Yours sincerely,
President
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India
Source- Email from ICAI
