Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) Shashi Kant Sharma has been conferred honorary professorship by the Nanjing Audit University in China. It is the only university which is recognised by the Institute of Internal Auditors. In his acceptance address, CAG put an emphasis on capacity building for auditors of international fraternity in view of ever-changing governance structures. He stressed on the need for co-operation among the five Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs), especially in data analytics, audit of infrastructure projects and environmental issues.

Sharma is in Beijing to take part in the first meeting of Supreme Audit Institution (SAIs) of BRICS countries. BRICS SAI leaders have agreed to actively enhance quality of auditors to enable SAIs to play a bigger role in advancing economic and social development, Sharma was quoted as saying. A delegation of Auditor Generals of BRICS to a meeting with Chinese Vice-Premier Zhang Gaoli and discussed progress of the summit.

CAG talked about the big strides taken by the Indian government in automating services and collecting, compiling and reporting data on its programme interventions. India is in the process of establishing a Data Analytics Centre and has finalised a big data management policy to meet the big data challenges in future, he told the audience on. He also hoped that this would enable the SAIs to come up with more incisive audit findings and to assist governments in formulating appropriate policies, the release further said.