Launch of XBRL India Website

XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) XBRL (eXtensible Business Reporting Language) is a novel way of electronic communication of business and financial data which is revolutionizing business reporting around the world and is immense utility to the capital markets and the investing community. It provides major benefits in the preparation, analysis and communication of business information. XBRL is a cutting-edge technology standard that enables faster and more cost-efficient electronic exchange of information.The idea behind XBRL is simple. Instead of treating financial information as a block of text, essentially, the XBRL technology allows electronic tagging of each individual item of data so that computers can work on the information using a set of rules. The electronic tags that are applied are standardized and are contained in taxonomies which are essentially the dictionaries used by XBRL that define the specific tags for individual items of data. The tags are applied using a tagging tool that retrieves the tags from the standards taxonomies and applies them to whatever format the financial statements are created in, such as Microsoft Word or Excel.Seeing the rising importance of XBRL as an effective means of communicating financial information and the plethora of benefits it has to offer, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the apex accounting body of the country, constituted the XBRL Group in the year 2007 for undertaking the development and promotion of XBRL in India. The Institute is spearheading the XBRL initiative in the country and is the provisional jurisdiction of XBRL in India. In its endeavor of providing best to its members the Institute has recently launched XBRL India website in the International Conference held at Agra from July 3-5, 2009. The website was launched by CA. Uttam Prakash Agarwal, President, ICAI in the presence of CA. Mohandas Pai, Infosys Technologies and Ms. Liv Watson, XBRL International, Vice Chair. The URL of XBRL India website is www.xbrl.org/inThe ICAI, India jurisdiction has developed the taxonomy for general purpose financial statements for commercial and industrial sector. The exposure draft of the taxonomy has already been issued and it will be sent for accreditation by XBRL, International shortly. Taxonomy for banks is under preparation and exposure draft is expected to be issued shortly