All CA exams to be held online

All CA exams to be held online

Mulls Statutory Body ICAI Post Covid-19 Pandemic

Prashant.Rupera@timesgroup.com

Vadodara:13.01.2021

During the peak of Covid-19 induced pandemic, Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the statutory body that manages the CA profession in the country, had gone ahead with exams in physical mode.

But in the long-run, world’s second largest professional body of CAs, has decided to conduct online exams only.

CA exams are conducted in May and November ever year. However, owing to the pandemic, the exams scheduled in May last year were postponed multiple times and later merged with the November exams.

In fact, ahead of the November 2020 exams, some students had even filed a writ petition before the Supreme Court raising safety concerns which was disposed of by the court.

“We are seriously considering all the possible options to make all the exams of all three levels – foundation, intermediate and final stages of CA – online. Our Delhi council is exploring the means. We will adopt the best model,” said Lalit Bajaj, chairman of Western India Regional Council (WIRC) of ICAI said on Tuesday.

Bajaj, who along with other office-bearers of WIRC took part in felicitation programme organised by Vadodara branch.

“The nature of CA exams is quite different. While the questions are asked in analytical format, the answers are not objective type but descriptive in nature. Currently, we have lot of MCQbased models for online examinations. We are exploring an alternative online model which assesses analytical skills keeping in mind all safety concerns,” said WIRC’s vice-chairman Vishal Doshi.

Unlike exams conducted by other institutes, the CA exams are held nation-wide and continue for days together. “There are other competitive exams which are held for a day or couple of days. But CA exams are held pan-India and they go on for 25 days covering all the three stages – making it a challenging task,” said Doshi.

Meanwhile, the CA examinations for the students who had opted-out from November 2020 examinations and opted for November 2020 cycle-II are scheduled from January 21 to February 7.

Across western region covering Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, the November exams had witnessed 70% turnout.