It would be classes beyond numbers and balance sheets for chartered accountants. To hone the personality of CAs and develop their communication and marketing skills, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has offered a new course aimed at all-round development of the finance professionals.

Ved Jain, president of ICAI, told TOI that the institute had been allotted 25-acre land at Jaipur for setting up a centre of excellence, a campus where ICAI would kickstart a three-month residential course to train CAs.

"While we have already started a pilot programme of the course through the campus of National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM), process is underway to develop our own campus to offer the course," Jain said.

ICAI hopes to position the new institute on the lines of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie, that is the apex training institution for senior members of the Civil Services in India.

"We plan to invite faculty from Lal Bahadur Shastri Academy, apart from leading management schools. Also, we would be inviting eminent personalities from the corporate world to the institute to train CAs," he said. Programme would focus on development of communication skills, personal qualities, inter-personal and teamwork skills within students while preparing them to work in complex environment.

Meanwhile, eyeing on the global chartered accountancy boom, ICAI has decided to spread its wings across the world. "We made our presence in New York recently which was our 20th chapter and will soon make our presence in Singapore by next year," Ved Jain added.