The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has envisaged setting up of an Accountancy Museum to trace the history of the accountancy profession in India from the ancient times.

"The ICAI, celebrating its Diamond Jubilee Year, will setup the museum with an aim to provide a journey through various stages of the glorious past of the Chartered Accountants (CA) profession in India and the conception and growth of the Institute", an official from the institute said.

The museum will comprise of rare collection of items including rare documents, photographs, paintings and memorabilia.

The collection will be of historic and heritage value from the point of view of the Chartered Accountancy profession in India.

"It will be a source of inspiration, learning, reference and professional pride for all those who are associated with accountancy profession including students and institute members. It will also showcase historic press clippings, mementoes, documents, photographs, paintings, handicrafts, stamps, video shoots, posters etc. related to accountancy profession in India. It is a heritage that needs to be preserved and shared with others", said ICAI Director, Vijay Kapoor.

The Institute has also decided to set up its 21st Chapter in Singapore to provide a forum for its members working there to interact among themselves, organize seminars and keep themselves abreast with the developments taking place in the fields of Accounting, Auditing and other allied areas globally, besides organizing Continuing Education Programmes for the members.

The ICAI has also said that there is a need to train professionals in some of the new concepts of International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) such as fair value measurement etc.

It has, therefore, formulated a 75-hour Certificate Course on IFRSs to provide in-depth education and training to professionals.

The course will be launched in September, 2008 in all major cities of India.

Workshops of short duration have been planned to train the faculty to ensure that the training imparted by all units is uniform.