Difference between ICWAI and CMA courses & eligibility criteria

I want to know if there is any difference between ICWAI and CMA courses. If I have to apply what is the eligibility criteria for the same and also what does the course cover?

There is no such difference between ICWAI and CMA. They are two different words used to describe one single thing. ICWAI stands for Institute of Cost and Work Accountant of India whereas CMA stands for Cost management accounting. Apart from the literal meaning there is no difference at all. Cost and management accounting (ICWAI or CMA) is a course in which you create a more advanced understanding about the Management accounting, auditing and cost accounting. The course’s main focus is on Cost accounting; however, there are various other subjects related to finance that you will get to learn part from cost accounting but cost accounting is the mainframe subject. After the successful completion of the CMA or ICWAI you can become a Cost accountant of any reputed company/organisation and will be able to gradually help the company in navigating the cost of production and using the effective methods to decrease it as per the plan.

The course is run by ICMA all over India. It has more than 65 centres of learning in India and you can find out more about this by going on their official website. The good news for an aspirant is that the admissions are open throughout the year which means that you can apply for the course whenever you are ready. The CWA course exams (Foundation, Intermediate and Final) are conducted twice a year in June and December. The three stages in ICWAI have different subjects to offer during their term. In case of the Foundation Course, there are four papers that require clearing. They are Organisation & Management Fundamentals (Paper I), Accounting (Paper II), Economics and Business Fundamentals (Paper III) and Business Mathematics and Statistics Fundaments (Paper IV). All the papers are of three hours and 100 marks.

The Intermediate/executive course comprises of two groups. Group I having- Financial accounting, Commercial &Industrial Laws and Auditing and Applied Direct Taxation. And Group II having – Cost and management accounting, Operation management & Information system and Applied Indirect Taxation. There are two modes through which you these programmes are made available to all the students. You can either do it through correspondence or you can do it through oral coaching at ICWAI study centres placed all over India.