Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs, R. Bandyopadhyay, has asked the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) to impart the training to professionals for converging Indian Accounting Standards with International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRSs) at an affordable cost and of high quality.

Inaugurating the curtain raiser ceremony of the chain-workshops, being organized by the ICAI on Indian Accounting Standards converged with IFRSs here recently, Bandyopadhyay said that he was really happy to note that the Institute is taking all necessary steps to organize IFRSs awareness programmes for the industry.

"This will certainly ensure a smooth transition to IFRSs," he said.

Responding to the secretary's suggestion, ICAI has assured the Ministry of Corporate Affairs that the training to be imparted for convergence will not only be of high quality but it will also be affordable.

In order to ensure that the convergence process is smooth and meets the stipulated deadlines, the ICAI will be launching from the next month intensive training workshops in 58 locations across the length and breadth of the country.

The Institute will be undertaking training programs of short duration to meet the varying requirements of different entities/individuals. Accordingly two types of training workshops are being planned:

1. Two Days Training Workshops - The two days workshops have been designed to equip the ICAI Members, Corporates and other stake holders with the essential knowledge in Indian Accounting Standards converged with IFRSs covering the following aspects in its ambit:

- Introduction and dissemination of knowledge on Indian Accounting Standards converged with IFRSs;

- Comparison of IFRSs with converged Indian Accounting Standards.

2. One Day Training Workshops - The one day workshops have been specially designed with the objective of equipping the ICAI members and others with general overview of the Indian Accounting Standards converged with IFRSs to enable them to develop an approach for acquiring structured knowledge about the same.

The ICAI has already started a massive exercise to train its members in industry as well as in the practice.

Last year, it launched an extensive 100 hours certificate course in IFRSs. So far, about 1600 members have successfully undergone the training of the IFRS certificate course.

Besides this, the ICAI has also conducted several seminars and conferences on IFRSs to discuss various aspects related to convergence.