By this November, ICAI will inaugurate the country's first museum that traces the evolution of chartered accountancy in India.

Historic press clippings, photographs, rare documents and video clippings are some of things through which the institute hopes to illustrate the past.

"The initial idea was to start a museum dedicated just to ICAI, which is celebrating its diamond jubilee this year It was while working on this idea that we decided to look at the bigger picture. This museum will trace the journey of accountancy in the country right from the rudimentary stages. That is when Chanakya spoke of economy and made references to accounting," said ICAI president Ved Jain.

"A lot of the material from 1913 onwards will be easily available from the institute as well as people who have been associated with ICAI. We have, for example, managed to procure a photograph of the East India Company's first balance sheet that dates all the way back to the early 1700s," informed Vijay Kapur, director, ICAI.

The apex accounting body is also going to set up its 21st chapter in Singapore to provide forum for the members of the institute working there to interact and keep themselves abreast with the developments in the field of accounting.

That apart, ICAI has formulated a 75hour certificate course on International Financial Reporting Standards, which will provide in-depth education and training to professionals. The course will be launched in September