CFA vs ICFAI
It's a 10-year-old trademark battle that has blown into a full-fledged war. In the mid-80s, the Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) Institute of the US tied up with the Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India (ICFAI) to lend its name to the latter's programme. By the mid-90s, the deal was allowed to expire and in 1997 the CFA Institute filed a case against ICFAI over its CFA course. After a protracted legal battle, the Delhi High Court in August last year asked ICFAI to drop CFA from its name. Not the one to give up easily, ICFAI filed a case against CFA at the Guwahati High Court, claiming that the American institute was offering an unapproved technical programme. The court directed the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to examine whether the institute ought to have registered with it. Eventually, the CFA Institute was given a show-cause notice and told to shut down operations in India.
The case, arguably the first trademark dispute in the Indian education business, is interesting for one simple reason: It brings a new medium of education delivery head on with India's regulations. For example, the CFA Institute has no issues registering with AICTE, but to do so it must prove that it has physical infrastructure in India, including a permanent faculty. Whereas, by design, the CFA Institute is a non-profit, global association of investment professionals that delivers courses virtually to students. It has more than 78,000 'charterholders' around the world and several employers consider its CFA programme a gold standard in the business. India itself has 300 charterholders. When BT went to press, the Delhi High Court was slated to hear on
August 7 CFA's appeal against the AICTE decision. It would be unfortunate if a good programme were shut down just because it didn't fit in with AICTE's conception of an institute. At a time when India is trying to create professionals for the global job market, AICTE ought to be looking at the content and reputation of the institute in question, and not if it delivers education the old-fashioned way.
