ICAI elects CA. Uttam Prakash Agarwal President and CA. Amarjit Chopra, Vice President for the year 2009-10

1. CA. Uttam Prakash Agarwal has assumed office of the President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India today on Feb 5, 2009. He has been elected as the President by the Council of the Institute. He was Vice-President of the Institute for the year 2008-09.He has been practicing for about two decades after qualifying as a Chartered Accountant in 1987.As a prolific speaker, he has addressed various conferences, seminars and workshops, organized nationally and internationally and has authored books as well.

He joined the Council in 2004 and has held Chairmanship of Committee for Members in Industry. He was the Vice Chairman of the Committee on Ethical Standards in the year 2006-07, Committee for Members in Industry in 2005-06 and Research Committee in 2007-08. While he has held Membership of different Non-standing Committees in the past, he is now ex-officio Member of all the Non-standing Committees of ICAI. He is the joint editor of the journal The Chartered Accountant. He is also Vice Chairman of ICAI Accounting Research Foundation, a body incorporated under the Companies Act, 1956 as a research wing of ICAI. He also holds the position of ex-officio Vice Chairman of Chartered Accountants Benevolent Fund and the S. Vaidyanath Aiyer Memorial Fund as well. He is also a Member of the ICAI-ICWAI-ICSI Coordination Committee. He is heading a 6 member High Powered Committee constituted to look into issues arising out of Satyam fiasco.

He has been the member of the Expert Group constituted by CBDT and has also acted as arbitrator in National Internet Exchange of India and Bombay Stock Exchange. He is a Member of the Committee on Quality Control of South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA), an apex body of SAARC.

He also holds Directorship in various companies and has been actively associated, for a number of years, with various professional and social associations. He has addressed SAFA forum as ICAI representative at Nepal and Bangladesh. Issues concerning small & medium size enterprises are core to his developmental agenda.

2. CA. Amarjit Chopra has been elected as the Vice-President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant in the year 1975 and since then has been in practice as a senior partner of G S A & ASSOCIATES, New Delhi. He was elected to the Central Council of The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India for the terms 1998-2001, 2001-2004, 2004-2007 and was reelected for the fourth consecutive term 2007 onwards.

During his term as a Council Member he has been member of all the 3 Standing Committees namely Executive, Disciplinary and Examination. He has also been the chairman of Corporate Laws Committee, Expert Advisory Committee and Financial Reporting Review Board, Corporate Governance Committee, Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (AASB) and committee on Internal Audit. He was Chairman Professional Development Task Force of Jammu & Kashmir & State Jammu & Kashmir Branch. He was also the Vice-Chairman of Electoral Reforms Committee, Ethical Standard Board, Accounting Standards Board (ASB), Professional Development Committee (PDC). He has also been member of various non-standing committees of ICAI.

He has been nominated on the working group of the South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) on the study of Corporate Governance Practices in the South Asian Countries. He was also a member of group for revision of MAOCARO, constituted by the Govt. of India. He was also nominated by the Institute to National Advisory Committee on Corporate Laws constituted by the Government of India.

Presently he is Chairman, Accounting Standards Board (ASB), Vice Chairman- Committee on Accounting Standards for Local Bodies and Member of various Standing/ Non- Standing committee constituted by ICAI e.g. Corporate Laws Committee, Committee on Government Accounting, Indirect Taxes Committee, Committee on Management Accounting Committee on Internal Audit, Committee on Financial Markets & Investors Protection, Committee on Trade Laws & WTO, Special Purpose Committee and Committee on Corporate Governance.

He is also on the working group for addressing implementation issues and formulation of operational guidelines relating to Accounting Standards on Financial Instruments (AS.30) by Banks and Financial Institutions, Committee for revisions of Schedule XIV to the Companies and state level Committee on Public Finance. He is an Independent Director in various reputed companies and their Board Committees and also on Accounting Research Foundation (ARF). He was nominated by the Bank/Financial Institutions to the Board of certain Public Limited Companies.

His special areas of interest are Bank Audit, Company Law Matters, Internal Audit, Accounting Standards, Audit & Assurance standards.