The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) is a national professional accounting body of India. It was established on 1 July 1949 as a body corporate under the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 enacted by the Constituent Assembly of India (acting as the provisional Parliament of India) to regulate the profession of Chartered Accountancy in India. ICAI is the second largest professional accounting body in the world in terms of membership second only to American Institute of Certified Public Accountants. ICAI is the only licensing cum regulating body of the financial audit and accountancy profession in India. It recommends the accounting standards to be followed by companies in India to the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards (NACAS) and sets the accounting standards to be followed by other types of organisations. ICAI is solely responsible for setting the auditing and assurance standards to be followed in the audit of financial statements in India. It also issues other technical standards like Standards on Internal Audit (SIA), Corporate Affairs Standards (CAS) etc. to be followed by practicing Chartered Accountants. It works closely with the Government of India, Reserve Bank of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India in formulating and enforcing such standards.