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The Editorial Board is a non-standing committee of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) with a MISSION to convey regularly to the members the professional knowledge, matters of interest of profession, matters relating to the Institute and its activities and such other matters as deemed to be of educational/professional value in a structured manner, through the journal `The Chartered Accountant’. The reach and impact of the Journal can be gauged by its circulation figure which stands at more than 230172 today, and its global readers include chartered accountants, allied professionals, CA Students and academic professionals from renowned national and international institutions.
A ‘Brand Ambassador’ of ICAI and the most visible indicator of the Institute’s profile for the members, students and external audiences, The Chartered Accountant today matches the global standards of professional Journals, be it content quality, in-depth topical coverage, interactive features, international standard layout/design, paper quality, overall look and feel or greater reach. It is increasingly being recognised as one of the most reliable and reader-friendly tools of professional knowledge update, not only for the members but also for allied professionals, institutions and a cross-section of the economic world in India and abroad, if its readers’ feedback is any indication.
The Chartered Accountant journal is also available online on ICAI website www.icai.org. Recently, the online journal has been transformed into a new hi-tech user-friendly e-magazine, which has taken the journal browsing experience to a new level where the reader gets a feeling as if he is browsing through the journal in hard copy, turning page after page. The latest technology has made our online journal more user-friendly and convenient by ensuring easy search, navigation, downloads, e-mail facility etc. Further, in the new version of e-journal, one can also ‘Listen’ the contents, besides making use of a range of other facilities. However, for the added and alternative convenience of readers, the journal continues to be hosted in the PDF format as well.
Surging ahead with its mission to keep the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India’s members and other readers of The Chartered Accountant journal up-to-date on various subjects, emerging areas, aspects and challenges of the profession in today’s age of fast-paced globalisation, the Editorial Board has established many a landmark during 12th February 2012 and 31st January 2013.
Following are the highlights of some significant achievements:
Contents and e-Journal:
- Wide range of topics covered: From 12th February 2012 issue to February 2013 issues of the journal, as many as 171 articles on various topics were published.
- New Features: Some new features like ‘Tech for You’, ‘Inspiration,’ ‘Ind AS’, ‘Insurance’, ‘Outsourcing’, ‘Foreign Trade’, ‘World Trade Organisation’, ‘Capital Market’ etc. were introduced in the journal. Existing features like ‘From the President’, ‘Legal Update’, ‘National Update’ and ‘International Update’ etc. were further upgraded to keep the members better informed.
- Special Focus: As part of ICAI overall efforts to keep the members up-to-date on matters related to the profession, the Editorial Board gave special coverage to ‘62nd Annual Function’ of the ICAI in March 2012 issue. The March 2012 issue of the journal laid special focus on ‘Bank Audit’ and ‘International Taxation’ under which a total of five articles were published besides other routine features. The April 2012 issue primarily various important aspects of Union Budget 2012-13. The May 2012 issue mainly focused on different aspects of accounting. The June 2012 issue focused mainly on accounting and Corporate and Allied Laws with five articles been published under these columns. The July 2012 issue was a special 228 page issue coinciding with CA Day. The August 2012 issue focused on new Service Tax regime, September 2012 issue specifically covered some topical issues of International Taxation besides the index of journal content for the period July 2011-June 2012, and October 2012 issue comprehensively covered various aspects of Taxation besides other features. This issue also specifically carried a special article on Mahatma Gandhi’s tryst with Accountancy Profession. The November 2012 issue of the journal specifically focused on ‘Corporate and Allied Laws’ and ‘International Taxation’. In December 2012 and January 2013 issues, some special features published included speeches of Goa Governor Shri Bharat Vir Wanchoo and Goa Chief Minister Shri Manohar Parrikar given at the ICAI Council meeting held in in Goa, profiles of new Union Ministers Shri Sachin Pilot, Dr. M Veerappa Moily and CA. K Rahman Khan, reports on ‘24th Annual International Seminar and First GCC Conference of ICAI’s Abu Dhabi Chapter’, ‘visit to CERT of Higher Colleges of Technology (UAE)’ and ICAI-CBEC Programme for Training the Trainers in Financial Statement Analysis’, Special write-up on Companies Bill, 2012 and editorial on ‘CSR and Role of CAs’.
- Major Highlights: July 2012 issue of The Chartered Accountant journal was brought out a special 228 page issue, coinciding with the CA Day, which captured and highlighted all the past, present future perspectives of the profession through special features and write-ups/interviews of some leading personalities. The issue include CA Day messages of leading leaders of the times including President of India President of India, Smt. Pratibha Devisingh Patil, Vice-President of India Shri Hamid Ansari, the then Union Minister for Finance Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Union Minister of Corporate Affairs Dr. M. Veerappa Moily, etc. The issue also carried exclusive interviews of Minister of Corporate Affairs Dr. Veerappa Moily and former Chairman Rajya Sabha CA. K Rahman Khan. The various features included ‘Words of Wisdom’ comprising quotes on ‘future of accountancy profession’ as given by Past Presidents of the ICAI, ‘Reminiscenses’ ‘World View & Vision on Profession’ , ‘Confessions’, ‘Quotes of noted leaders who visited ICAI since 1949’, ‘Photographs of the noted leaders attending various programmes of the ICAI since 1949’, ‘Historical Facts about accountancy profession’ and ‘Excerpts of the debates in Parliament about accountancy profession since 1936’, etc. The prominent authors included IFAC President Goran Tidstrom, Deputy C&AG Ajit Patnaik, IFAB Board Member Prabhakar Kalvacherla, Competition Commission Chairman Ashok Chawla, SAFA President Muhammad Rafi, Sri Lankan Accounting Institute President Sujeewa Rajapakse, Hong Kong Institute CPAs president Keith Pogson, Canadian accounting institute president Kevin Dancey, Former presidents of ICAI CA. T.N. Manoharahan (Padma Shri Awardee) etc.
Another highlight of the period of report was the April 2012 issue which focused on various important aspects of Union Budget 2012-13. In all 13 budget- oriented articles invited from leading authors were published in the journal within a short deadline after presentation of the Budget on March 16, 2012.
The May 2012 issue specifically gave coverage to veteran leader CA. NKP Salve and his very rare photographs were also published as a mark of tribute to the departed leader.
The August 2012 issue was dedicated to new Service Tax regime in India under which as many as eight exclusive articles were published besides a special report on 64th Foundation Day celebrations of the ICAI.
The February 2013 issue specially focused on ‘Bank Audit (wherein seven articles were published),’ ‘ICAI Achievements in 2012-13,’ ‘Election Notifications,’ ‘Pre-Budget Memoranda,’ ‘Report on ICAI International Conference in Mumbai’.
- In Conversation: The Board revived the column ‘Face 2 Face’ (renamed as In-Conversation) in the journal and published interviews of inspiring personalities from Indian polity, industry and accounting profession. Under this column interviews/ speeches of Minister of Corporate Affairs Dr. M Veerappa Moily, Former Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman CA. Rahman Khan, Chairman of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance Shri Yashwant Sinha, CBEC Chairman Mr. SK Goel, Goa Governor Bharat Vir Wanchoo and Goa Chief Minister Mr Manohar Parrikar were also covered under this feature.
- Coverage in Photographs Section Widened: As a policy, the coverage in the Photographs Section of the journal has been grossly widened by incorporating important photographs related to increasing number of programmes by various committees. To facilitate this objective, the limit of number of photographs pages in the journal from ‘2’ to ‘4’ out of ‘164’ pages of the journal.
- Action Plan for 2012-13: An action plan for 2012-13 was prepared, and as part of which the overall Journal design and layout has been upgraded matching in line with established standards from July 2012 issue. Other highlights of the Action Plan include ‘developing a ‘Style Sheet’ of journal to bring in uniformity / consistency in language. It will be a sheet summarising the editorial conventions to be followed in preparing text for publication. An ‘Author’s Panel/Data Bank’ will be developed with the objective of getting, on the first hand, quality articles written by experts in respective fields.
- DVD of Past Issues of The Chartered Accountant journal: In an important initiative to provide a single point reference window to the readers of The Chartered Accountant journal, the Editorial Board decided to bring out DVD of past issues of the journal in two phases. In phase one, which has been completed, a DVD of last 10 years of the journal (July 2002-June 2012) has already been brought out. In the second phase, a DVD of all the past issue of the journal since the start of its publication in 1952 will be brought out.asds
- Journal Highlights through e-mail: For added and reach and convenience of members, the highlights of journal with live links of the contents are being emailed to all the members in PDF format. This initiative is aimed at enabling the members get to know the highlights of the journal in real time just at the click of a mouse instead of waiting for the hard copy of the journal to arrive.
- Draft Guidelines for e-Newsletters: Responding to an urgent need for having comprehensive guidelines on publication of e-newsletters by various committees, the Editorial Board has finalised the draft guidelines to ensure ‘Uniformity and Quality’ as also to ensure, align and fine-tune the focus of different e-newsletters singly and collectively. Those draft guidelines have also been considered and recommended to the Council by the Executive Committee for final approval, which is on the agenda of the Council for discussion and decision.
- Deterrent Action against Instances of Plagiarism: In order to maintain and enhance the quality and credibility of the journal content, thorough checking of the articles at random was initiated to check the practice of plagiarism, noticed among some authors submitting articles for journal. A comprehensive anti-palgiarism policy has been prepared which is being considered by the Editorial Board.
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