"The strong economic growth is fuelling demand for CAs and increasing interest in the profession. We have also consciously adopted a strategy of catching them young. There will be a quantum jump in the number of CAs passing out in 2010 without compromising on our quality and standards," Mr Ved Jain, ICAI President, told reporters here on Monday.

In 2007, 1.25 lakh students opted for the chartered accountancy course as against enrollment levels of 35,000 to 40,000 seen in each of the years 2001-2006.

Articleship training

Meanwhile, Mr Jain said that the ICAI's Central Council has now decided to allow articleship training to be undertaken abroad so long as it was under a practicing member of the institute. "Articleship training need not be done only in countries where ICAI has a chapter. Having a chapter is not the criteria for this. The requirement is it can be done in any country but it should be under our institute member who is in practice," Mr Jain said.

Currently, ICAI has 18 chapters and the Central Council has now given its nod for setting up a chapter in Muscat.