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Inside Story:CFAI,USA Vs ICFAI,Hyderabad controversy
The ICFAI Hyderabad verses CFA Institute,USA fight has been long extended now and does not seem to finish easily. So what is it all about?
Well this should be of more concern to the Indian community especially as it's in India from where it has actually originated.
ICFAI,Hyderabad is a private educational organization based in Hyderabad. Earlier sometimes in 1990, they used to have a tie up with CFA Institute,USA to conduct the CFA program in India in a classroom like environment. After a few years,the institute made a U-turn and broke away from CFAI,USA and started their own CFA program. In 2006,the Delhi High Court ordered stop to unauthorized use of the CFA global CFA designation. Here is the complete story.
But the ICFAI Hyderabad perople proved to be a little smarter. Taking India's lack of law regarding certificate programs, the Hyderabad Institute went and got themselves registered as a university in the state of Tripura.
Then they filed a fresh case against CFA Institute USA in the Guwahati High Court, seeking to stop CFAI, Institute to stop conducting the CFA Program in India as it was not approved by AICTE, which is like a governing body for technical education(includes finance) in India. Now CFAI, Institute never sought any permission from AICTE as they always took the stand that they are not a regular university like academic program and thus does not fall under the purview of the the AICTE. Now the Guwahati High Court asked the AICTE for its opinion on the matter. AICTE, not even looking into the matter properly gave a thumbs down to the CFA Institute, and told the Guwahati High Court that the CFA Program DOES like in its purview and thus the CFA Program by the CFAI,Institute USA be banned in the country.The Guwahati High Court took their views as de facto and ordered CFA Institute to stop the program in India. Since then, the CFAI Institute has been seeking fresh orders from Delhi High Court for the examination to be conducted in India every year. However it is interesting to not that there have been corruption cases coming out against the AICTE official and the head Ram Avatar Yadav has been suspended in 2009.He was also the head of AICTE when it submitted its views against CFAI,USA to Guwahati High Court. Here is one news. Here is another regarding the head of AICTE being suspended. It is also interesting to know that the present HRD ministry is planning to scrap the AICTE. Another interesting fact: the ICFAI University is in Tripura state, but the original ICFAI insitute was based in Hyderabad.So why did it not got a university status in Andhra Pradesh and rather had to go to an obscured state like Hyderabad,which is very underdeveloped with hardly any investments. Well rumors say its because the then ruling party of Tripura was a communist party who hate the Americans a lot. Well now its upto you to think.
In the latest development ICFAI has been fined $1 million by a US Court and told to pay the amount to the CFA Institute,USA. Here is the complete story.
The Case is still going on in Guwahati and Delhi High Court. The Indian Government has still not brought any law protecting Certificate and Charter Programs like the one being conducted by the CFAI. However things are moving on.
The students too had to suffer alot. Because then, they had to fly out of India to give the exam. The CFAI was very co-operative in the sense they accomodated them at eery changes and made full refunds to the students who did want to fly out and give the exam because of the controversy and inconvenience.
The number of students appearing for the CFAI Program also dipped.But s of 2009 it is back to its normal and rising again as the clouds of confused have parted ways and people are better able to understand the reality.They are willing to go out of the country and give the exam if the court doesn't permit to hold the exam in india. Lastly known, the figure was around 12000, the number of students registering for the CFA Program and is counted amongst the top four regions in terms of the number of registrations. Does the ICFAI program match up to the CFAI Program? Well its upto ou to decide. Do your research and you will understand how superior is the CFAI Institute's CFA Program. IT is more rigorous, but then all good things in life never come easy. How about getting an MBA from Somalia rather than Harvad, Stanford or IIM Ahmedabad.Well MBA is an MBA isn't it?You might also consider joining the Pirate Industry there.
Think upon it.