Chartered accountants have their footprints in private, government and foreign jobs. The spotlight is over the area which has a proven record. Promulgation of the success stories is not possible in private and foreign jobs. To break the glass ceiling about the chartered accountancy profession, we have scripted the success story of Sanjay Agarwal from Bihar and ShriNavneetSehgal from Uttar Pradesh. These two personalities set to ignite the fire in the aspiring students. These two personalities serve as transport minister and MSME and Export promotion minister. They are CA turned IAS officers that sound like an inspirational story for grooming chartered accountants. This blog address these personalities with their educational background and efficient service in the respective departments. Hope the readers get the answer to the question” Is it worth doing IAS after chartered accountancy? Education is a pride to carry for government and private services to visualize the changes.
Bihar transport department:
Mr Sanjay Kumar Agarwal worked as Commissioner of Patna division for two years from October 2019. He has taken charge of the transport department since 2018 and serving for the past three years and nine months. He also has worked as Bihar state road Development Corporation limited. He has served as a collector to Gaya, Nalanda, and Jehanabad. Mr Sanjay Kumar Agarwal also served as an assistant collector in Bhagalpur and worked as IAS LBSNAA MUSSOORIE. The transport department changed the recruitment drive as a separate cadre in the year 2020. The BPSC examination is used to finalize the applicants. Sanjay Agarwal mentioned regarding the recruitment process that the department work is in the upsurge for recent years. Human resource requirement is high to handle different works like issuing permits, handling information technology, and issuing licenses. He also made changes with government offices and introduced e-cars to the Cheif Minister Nithish Kumar. He offered a special free ride in the city on the occasion of Raksha Bandana for women travellers. He fastened the pollution check with mobile pollution check. He is a role model to the query Success stories of chartered accountants who did IAS?
Uttar Pradesh MSME and export department:
Uttar Pradesh Government supports MSME units amidst the pandemic crisis to provide jobs and attract foreign investments. In Uttar Pradesh Minister NavneetSehgal had created new opportunities with the helpdesk. This scheme of invest UP in April 2020 had created an impression with 96 investors around the world. Majorly the US, UK, Japan, Germany, Canada, Singapore and South Korea invested in Indian small and medium-size industries with a net worth of around 66,000 crores. The notable investment that India had received is from Hiranandani Group, Microsoft; STTGDC put Ltd, Associated British Food Plc, and Samsung India. MrNavneetSengal mentioned that Samsung India wanted to make India the largest manufacturer in the world with the largest display unit. This investment requires a proper channel that officials create on a timely basis. On July 16th the cabinet minister SidharthNath Singh mentioned to the media that the MSME unit of the Uttar Pradesh government has created 2.64 jobs and 2.5 lakh loans to MSME units. UP government has helped the suffering MSME units with credit under the ECLGS scheme. The amount of 12.22 lakh crore is distributed to the stressed MSME units in UP. The initiatives of creating jobs, offering loans, creating schemes and establishing investment opportunities require the intelligence of finance professionals. He is the role model for visualizing changes with efficient management of Government departments. Students must realize that rather than asking the question that IS CA tough? It is wise to set an example for the future generation with efficient management skills.
The combination of CA and IAS is a successful formula:
Recently in August, the ICAI Institute presented the flashback story of successful chartered accountants with a live webcast on Success stories of chartered accountants as civil servants. The work culture and challenges are different in Big Fours, MNCs and government departments. Government project requires specialized knowledge and administrative skills. From the perspective of knowledge, CA and IAS empower the government departments with expertise knowledge. But, from the perspective of the job, the Auditing job takes the accountancy knowledge of a chartered accountant fully whereas the IAS job only makes use of the administrative knowledge of a chartered accountant.
The spirit of the nation earns power and respect to a Chartered accountant if he is placed as an IAS officer. Referring to APJ Abdul Kalam statement that CAs are a partner in nation-building, Chartered accountants are the need of the hour. The knowledge of income tax, customs, exercise, social responsibility and corporate compliances educate the chartered accountants to channelize the government departments as per the requirement of the public. The Private sector and public sector work with the heavy competition to the public. The government departments have the responsibility to win over the competition with private sectors. And also serve the public better with productive schemes. For empowering the government departments, professionals with a finance background are highly needed.
Bottom line:
From a monetary aspect, Chartered accountants earn more than IAS officers. The salary of an IAS officer is 60k to 70k. But, the salary of a CA rises as per his experience from 2 lakh to 5 lakh per month. Apart from salary, IAS officers get respect and power that motivate them to serve the nation. The syllabus of IAS is a bit higher than the Chartered accountancy syllabus. So, it is not easy to clear the examination and serve the nation.
