The President of India, Shri Ram Nath Kovind, inaugurated the platinum jubilee celebrations of the Institute of Cost Accountants of India in New Delhitoday (July 14, 2018). 

Speaking on the occasion, the President said that cost accountants play a substantial part in enhancing the efficiency of processes – particularly in manufacturing – and of capital use. Cost accountants are the best managers of the three Ms of a business organization. These are – men and women who work there; the materials used as inputs; and the machines deployed for processing, fabrication and creation. As global manufacturing evolves and as manufacturing in India gets a boost over the coming decade – with the maturing of our Make in India programme – cost accountants will have a bigger and bigger role. It will be Cost accountants’ mandate to ensure that products and services are delivered at a competitive price but without compromising on quality. 

The President said that it is for cost accountants to ensure that wasteful activities and costs in production are removed. It is for cost accountants to help in innovation and improvement of processes and systems to reduce avoidable costs and make each rupee that is invested go that much further. It is for cost accountants to help fight the aberrations of gold plating that may sometimes appear on our business landscape. All this will strengthen the national effort to establishing India as a low-cost and competitive manufacturing hub for world-class products. 

The President said that as our economy grows, he expects the demand for cost accountants to rise very sharply. It will do so not only in the corporate sector but also in government organisations. State governments as well as Ministries and Departments of the Union government are making efforts to rationalise expenses and costs. A Section 8 Company promoted by the Institute of Cost Accountants of India has entered into a memorandum of understanding with Indian Railways to study the existing costing system in Indian Railways and suggest reforms for greater efficiency. In the days ahead, this learning can be extended to other fields, including defence acquisitions.