Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman asked chartered accountants to adequately familiarise themselves with new and growing areas of auditing, including ESG (environmental, social, and governance) and carbon accounting, and to adopt technology to improve their productivity. Developing expertise in new areas will help not just their clients but also the broader ecosystem, Sitharaman said at an event held by Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) in Bhubaneswar.

Urging these professionals to adopt technology, she said, "Thanks to technology, the traditional image of accounting as a tedious process is rapidly changing." The minister said the Free Trade Agreement with the UK, which is being negotiated by the commerce ministry, will have much for the Indian chartered accountants to benefit from if they can leverage it well. Earlier this year, ICAI president Aniket Sunil Talati had said the chartered accountants' body had decided to endorse proposals to allow auditors from the UK and Canada, with which FTA talks are going on, to practise strictly on "reciprocity basis".

Sitharaman also dwelt upon the mutual recognition agreements that ICAI has got into with top auditing bodies of various countries. These include Canada, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, the UK and Malaysia. The minister highlighted the growing importance of digitisation, saying it has led to greater financial literacy at low costs, brought in transparency in the system and enabled retail investors to get into stock markets.