“CA Profession and Globalisation”

Many individuals, from a variety of backgrounds, have considered such questions as; What defines a profession? What are the characteristics of a profession? What does a profession look like? How do you tell if an activity is a profession or not? When considering these, and other, questions it is important to clearly know what a ‘Profession‘actually is.

So what is it? What does it mean?

Old Oxford English Dictionary comes up with the following; A definition of ‘a profession‘hasbeen provided as “a paid occupation, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification”. Further, the description of ‘professional’ includes such terms as competent, skilful, or assured.

Now the question arises that what is it that distinguishes a profession from a career??

A career is a long-term job. A profession is something you have gone to school or an institute for and is your specialty.

Professionals are required all over the world and Chartered Accountancy is one of the most trusted professions all over the world. There can be no point of time when Chartered Accountants will not be in demand. As all the companies spread all over the world are having accounts department and are required to get there accounts audited by a Chartered Accountant. Balance sheet of every company are being accompanied by Audit report framed by a C.A. indicating that there is no misrepresentation of the facts and if there are any, has been rectified or else has been highlighted. We all know CA is a WATCH DOG and not a BLOOD WOUND. So the duty of CA is only to identify the mistakes prevailing in the accounts, if any, and gets that mistake into the notice of the management, and if still that mistake not ratified than mention the same in his audit report.

They have a moral obligation towards the society at large as any person who is pursuing the course of Chartered accountancy has to go through a training under a Chartered Accountant learning how to work and what are the important areas that has to be covered after becoming a Chartered Accountant.

CA have to duly sign the statement along with the membership number issued to these Chartered Accountants by the Institute of Chartered Accountant, it serve as their identity in the corporate world. There signature without the membership number is of no use.

An auditor is required to conduct an independent review of the financial statements and offer an opinion as to whether the annual accounts give a true and fair view of the company’s state of affairs and financial position. To achieve this goal, the auditor needs to examine not only the company’s internal accounting system but also to inspect its assets and review the accounting transactions. It involves testing the reliability, competency and adequacy of evidence in support of all transactions.

With the rapid growth in economy, careers in finance and accounts have gained tremendous popularity and the most prestigious career option in this field is that of Chartered Accountant. Chartered Accountancy is a dynamic, challenging and rewarding profession. All the countries have their own Accountancy Association which regulates the quality and quantity of the professionals in this field. Chartered Accountancy Course is a professional course in Accounting introduced in our country in 1949, with the enactment of the Chartered Accountant Act.

A Chartered accountant is one who is specialised in accounting, auditing and taxation. He also serves as a management and corporate caretaker. In recent times, accountancy has become popular as a profession. The service of a CA is required in money matters even in a small business. Moreover according to the Company Act only CA's in professional practice are allowed to be appointed as auditors of companies in India. A chartered accountant is a person who is accepted as a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) after having passed the Final examination of the Chartered accountancy course conducted by the institute. 

Now my question is what globalisation is??

According to Wikipedia Globalization refers to the increasing unification of the world's economic order through reduction of such barriers to international trade as tariffs, export fees, and import quotas. The goal is to increase material wealth, goods, and services through an international division of labour by efficiencies catalyzed by international relations, specialization and competition. It describes the process by which regional economies, societies, and cultures have become integrated through communication, transportation, and trade.

There is a debate not only in India but all over the globe about the pros and cons of "globalisation". There is hardly any important global meeting which does not witness vigorous protest marches or picketing by the opponents of the globalisation process.

Before we look at our opportunities and challenges from globalisation, it is good to be certain of facts – where exactly India is in terms of globalisation. If we look at some of our own debate, it would seem as if we were already well on the way to globalisation, which was shaking up our economy. A most common measure of globalisation is openness to trade and a country’s participation in trade. By this measure, the extent of India’s globalisation is insignificant – it is one of the lowest in the world. India’s share in world trade is a meagre 0.7 per cent or so.

Another sense in which the word may be used is the effect of such changes on different countries or groups of countries, such as, developed and developing. In yet another sense, the word may also represent a "globalisation of ideas or ideology" and may be used as a synonym for triumph of capitalism or dominance of unfettered markets.

From India’s point of view, these developments provide opportunities for substantial growth. For example: - The fastest growing segment of services is the rapid expansion of knowledge-based services, such as, professional and technical services. India has a tremendous advantage in the supply of such services because of a developed structure of technological and educational institutions.

Now the main crux of discussion i.e. how is CA profession and globalization are related? Thus here comes the answer to the question i.e. with the pace of development our institute is also developing to an international level by entering into various MOU’s with different countries to provide with a further opportunity to the Qualified Chartered Accountants to work not only nationally but internationally.

Secondly in order to meet the level of accounting of international bodies even our institute ICAI is taking significant steps. The most important and recent example of this step is compulsory convergence of IFRS by Indian Companies from 1^st April 2011.

Thirdly, the Indian Government has entered into various DTAA agreements so as to attract international trade and reduce incidence of tax burden on the tax treaty.

Thus with the growing pace of economy not only our Economic sector has shown improvement but our Educational sector is also developing to a globalised level..