22-year-old from Bhiwandi ranks all-India 2nd in CA finals

Of the 74,096 candidates, who appeared for the final, 7,192 cleared the examination, results of which were announced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on Tuesday.

Twenty-two-year-old Bhiwandi resident Piyush Ramesh Lohia bagged the second rank at the final chartered accountancy (CA) exam of November 2016. Lohia, who graduated from the Mulund College of Commerce in 2016, scored 574/800 (71.75%).

A native of Rajasthan, Lohia interns with city-based Gokhale & Sathe Chartered Accountants. (HT photo)

Of the 74,096 candidates, who appeared for the final, 7,192 cleared the examination, results of which were announced by the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) on Tuesday.While Lohia came in second, Eti Agarwal from Lucknow topped the exam with 74.88% and Jyoti Maheshwari from Ahmedabad was third with 70.75%.

A native of Rajasthan, Lohia interns with city-based Gokhale & Sathe Chartered Accountants. “I’ve worked hard for this and I’m happy with the results. Now with the result out of my head, I can focus on my next step,” said Lohia, adding that he is yet to decide whether he’ll continue to work or pursue higher education. “I want to work in the finance sector, but I’m confused whether to gain work experience first or opt for an MBA.”

Of the 70,321 students, who appeared for the Common Proficiency Test (CPT) in December 2016, over 46% (32,650) candidates cleared the paper. According to figures shared by ICAI, 37,200 candidates appeared for Group I test in CA finals, of which 7.14% passed the test, whereas of the 36,896 candidates who appeared for the Group II test, 12.32% passed. 36,768 candidates appeared for both groups and 11.57% cleared both tests.

In 2015, more than 77,442 students had attempted Group I in final CA exam, out of which 12.61% students cleared the exam, whereas 75,774 students had appeared for the Group II exam of which 11.99% cleared.Officials from ICAI could not point at any particular reason for the decline in the number of candidates between 2015 and 2016. Mere 2,440 students had managed to clear both groups of exam held in November 2015.