ICAI (Institute of Chartered Accountants of India) is planning to target SMEs (small and medium enterprises) in the next phase of campus recruitments.

In an informal chat with Business Line here on the sidelines of a national conference on direct taxes here on Tuesday, K. Raghu, Central Council member of ICAI, said that ICAI has been conducting campus interviews in 22 locations across the country.

ICAI conducts campus interviews every six months, and around 4,000-5,000 CAs are recruited through such campus recruitments.

Stating that SMEs are a big market in India, he said ICAI will be focusing on them in the next round of campus recruitments. “SMEs are looking at CAs today, and we are looking at targeting them,” Raghu said.

More than 100 SMEs employed CAs when the campus recruitment was conducted last time. “We want to ensure that more and more corporates and SMEs employ them,” he said.

Though campus recruitment has been going on for past several years, it was given a big push last year.

Considering the demand for CAs in West Asia, the ICAI is also conducting campus recruitments for the corporates in that region. He said students in India are interviewed and selected from corporates in West Asia through videoconferencing mode.

Though there are accounting professionals from other Asian countries such as China, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh, CAs from India are in good demand.

Of around 100 CAs of a major telecom player in West Asia, nearly 70 are from India, he said. The managing director of that company had expressed greater confidence in Indian CAs during his (Raghu’s) recent meeting with him, he added.

vinayak.aj@thehindu.co.in

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