ICSI and ICMAI — India’s Other Two Statutory Professional Bodies

India has three separate professional bodies that regulate corporate finance and governance, each created by its own Act of Parliament. Most people have heard of Chartered Accountants. Fewer know that Company Secretaries and Cost Accountants have their own statutory institutes too, with their own legal powers and mandatory roles inside Indian companies. In 2025, one of these institutes even moved its headquarters after more than 80 years in the same city. Here’s what ICSI and ICMAI actually do, and how they got here.

Must Know

• ICSI (Institute of Company Secretaries of India) and ICMAI (Institute of Cost Accountants of India) are two of India’s three statutory professional accountancy bodies, alongside ICAI.
• For ICSI’s full founding history, statutory structure, and 2026 developments, see IndEco0248 — Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).
• ICMAI was founded in 1944 as ICWAI (Institute of Cost and Works Accountants of India). It gained statutory status under the Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959.
• ICWAI was renamed ICMAI in 2012.
• Both institutes are regulated under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, the same ministry that regulates ICAI.

Good to Know

• A Company Secretary handles corporate governance and regulatory compliance for a company. For the exact appointment thresholds, and ICSI’s own 2026 proposal to widen them, see IndEco0248 — Institute of Company Secretaries of India (ICSI).
• A Cost Accountant, also called a Cost and Management Accountant, focuses on cost audit, budgeting, and internal financial analysis. This is distinct from a Chartered Accountant’s statutory audit role.
• Certain companies above specified turnover thresholds must undergo a mandatory cost audit, carried out by an ICMAI member.
• Members of all three institutes, ICAI, ICSI, and ICMAI, can qualify as Insolvency Professionals under the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code, after ten years of membership.
• In 2025, ICMAI shifted its headquarters from Kolkata, where it had been founded in 1944, to New Delhi.

Test Yourself

Please wait…

1. Under which Act did ICSI become a statutory body, effective 1 January 1981?

The Companies Act, 1956

The Company Secretaries Act, 1980

The Chartered Accountants Act, 1949

The Cost and Works Accountants Act, 1959

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Great to Know

• ICMAI was founded in Kolkata in 1944, and stayed headquartered there for more than 80 years. In 2025, its head office finally moved to New Delhi.
• ICWAI, ICMAI’s earlier name, was a founding member of the International Federation of Accountants in 1977, an early mark of international standing.
• ICSI has held a mutual recognition arrangement with the UK’s Chartered Governance Institute since 1998. This allows reciprocal exam exemptions between the two bodies.
• ICAI, ICSI, and ICMAI each answer to a separate Act of Parliament, yet all three sit under the same ministry, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs.