SALEM: Opening a new chapter of success, Sri Ram S of Krishna Nagar near Ammapet here emerged as the all India topper in the highly competitive final examination of the Chartered Accountancy (CA) course and the Common Proficiency Test, the results of which were announced on Monday.
A student of the Salem branch of the South India Regional Council of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), Ram secured 613 marks (76.63 per cent) in the examinations held in May.
Expressing pride in Ram’s achievement, the Salem branch office disclosed that it was the second time in 66 years of the ICAI’s existence that a student from Salem had passed with such a high score.
Kantheti Naga of Vuyyuru in Vijayawada was the All India second rank holder with 610 marks (76.25 per cent).
Yash Manoj Goyal of Jamnagar, who bagged the third rank, scored a total of 599 marks (74.88 per cent).
In July 2014, Ram came all India first in the intermediate level of the Company Secretaryship course of the Institute of Company Secretaries of India. He had taken the Company Secretaryship course additionally, while doing articleship for CA course. Before that, in June 2012, he completed the foundation course by scoring 180 marks.
A former student of the Vidhya Mandir Higher Secondary School at Shivajinagar here, Ram joined the CA foundational level immediately after passing the higher secondary exams. He was ranked seventh in the all India CA intermediate level.
Disclosing his winning secret, Ram said between his intermediate and the finals was the three-year articleship period. He did his articleship under JV & Co, an auditing firm in Salem.
During this period, he used to spend most of his time going through the vast portions of study. “Most of the students procrastinate and rush through the books in the last four or five months. But I resolved to study at least two hours every day in a consistent manner,” Ram said, adding that it was a method that his father taught him.
When asked about his future plans, Ram said he is yet to make up his mind on whether to take up a corporate job or go for professional practice.
Ram’s father K V Srinivasan is a retired Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation employee and his mother R Badma is the district library officer in Perambalur.
According to an ICAI communication, of the 37,194 students who took the final Group-I exam, 5,382 passed (14.47 per cent).
Of the 36, 906 students who wrote the Group-II exam of the finals, 7,864 passed (21.30 per cent). Of the 40,180, who took both groups, 4,565 passed (11.36 per cent).