ICMAI elected the 67th president on 22nd, July 2024. The election was held in New Delhi. CMA Bibhuti Bhusan Nayak has over thirty years of experience in cost and management accountancy. He is the proud cost accountant from Odisha with a crown of third cost accountants from the state. TCA Srinivasan Prasad is the new Vice President of ICMAI for the tenure 2024 to 25. The blog intrigues the readers with information on the president, vice president and office bearer of ICMAI and the future of cost accountants in India.
President of ICMAI:
CMA Bibhuti Bhusan Nayak has over 30 years of experience in the cost accountant role. He is the president of ICMAI from 2024 to 25. He is popular in Odisha as he is the third cost accountant in the state. He served as vice-president during 2023 to 24. He retired from Odisha Power Transmission Corporation Limited. He worked as Deputy General Manager- Finance in OPTCL. He also served as the chairman of the Bhubaneswar chapter from 2015 to 16. He was the chairman of the Eastern India Regional Council from 2022 to 23. He was elected to serve as the council member from 2023 to 27. The new president of ICMAI is a source of pride to the Bhubaneshwar and Odisha chapters.
Vice-President of ICMAI:
CMA TCA Srinivasa Prasad is the vice president of ICMAI for the tenure 2024 to 25. He has been elected by the members of ICMAI. He has around 40 years of experience, in cost, finance, ERP, IED, IT, HR, MM, O&M and CSR management. He worked as the executive director of SAIL. He was part of the project in NMDC for ERP implementation. NMDC is the Navaratna PSU and the first one to implement ERP to improve performance in procurement, production, inventory management, dispatch management, human resource management, and finance. The implementation of ERP improves the performance, transparency and ease of doing business. He is the brain behind the implementation of ERP in four major steel plants of SAIL. From 2011 to 15, he was the central council member of ICMAI. He was re-elected as a central council member again from 2023 to 27. He also handled the information technology and members in industry committees. He was the chairman of IT and members-in-industry committees.
Office Bearer of ICMAI:
The SIRC at the regional meeting elected Vishwanath Bhat as the chairman. The 2024 meeting was held on 29, July. The vice-chairman for the SIRC is CMA Y. Srinivasa Rao. The secretary of the council is CMA Praveen Kumar. The treasurer of the SIRC is CMA K.Gomathisankar.
Future of cost accountants:
Chief accounting officers report to the chief financial officer. In the digital age, cost accountants scale up skills to enhance decision-making and stay relevant. The roles of CAO and CFO are evolving outside the traditional domain. To match the expectations, the CAOs are on the edge of learning multiple skills. CAOs handle financial reporting, transactional accounting issues, and regulatory obligations. The five competent areas for a cost accountant in the digital age are as follows:
Innovation and technology-enabled solutions:
In the modern business world, the culture forces professionals to drive agile, serve as value integrators and do effective capital allocation. To manage the customer and employee, the professionals establish technology-enabled solutions.
Strategic management:
Real-time decision-making requires data, information and competition analysis. Accountants are now elevating their role as business analysts. The business demands performance-based decisions.
Data intelligence:
Cost accountants use data to generate insights into the client’s requirements and use innovative strategies to develop business.
Risk management:
The cost accountants implement innovative ideas with a focus towards building trust with the stakeholders. Risk management and innovation are the two focus points of modern cost accountants.
Impact of AI:
Artificial intelligence is the technology that provides that predicts the future accurately. The technology is used to anticipate costs, implement cost-control strategies effectively, assess risks, minimize errors, and plan the future with accurate numbers.
Technological advancement:
Technological advancements are changing the skill set of the professionals. Data analytics, artificial intelligence and automation are the technologies that bring quality to the audit and accounting process.
Security issues:
Accountants and auditors deal with sensitive data and there is a need for data security. The usage of technology in the auditing and accounting field is limited because of the sensitive data. Accountants should have the technical knowledge to understand the data breaches.
Final Words:
Cost accountants work with different department heads. Cost accountants bring quality to the internal process. Cost accountants understand the risk, and competition and implement innovative ideas in the business. Cost accountants implement the latest trends and develop the business. After gaining experience, cost accountants work in top management roles. CMA courses prepare students for the complex and competitive business environment. The new president, vice-president and office bearers have vast experience. The syllabus, question paper pattern and training programs are designed by the management team of ICMAI. The management team of ICMAI prepare the Indian students for the challenges in the auditing and accounting processes of Indian and international companies.