Recently, frauds and white collar crimes have increased in the Indian corporate and non-corporate sectors. Infamous scams like Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh, Sanjay Seth, the Indiabulls and Kingfisher Airline credit card fraud, etc., have adversely affected the development of the corporate sector. Forensic accounting is considered as a tool for investigation and minimization of frauds and crimes in accounting. Further, there are numerous career opportunities for forensic accountants due to increasing number of white collar crimes in all sectors of the Indian economy, in particular and the world economy, in general. This article is based on secondary data collected from websites, newspapers, journals, etc. The main objective of the article is to know the conceptual background of forensic accounting.

In recent times, there have been an increasing number of frauds and white-collar crimes in the corporate and non-corporate sectors of the Indian economy. The infamous corporate scandals, like Harshad Mehta, Ketan Parekh, Sanjay Seth, Indiabulls and Kingfisher Airlines credit card fraud, etc., have adversely affected the development of the corporate sector. India has ranked as the 88^th most corrupt nation in the world. Frauds like stock market frauds, bank frauds, cyber frauds, insurance frauds, matrimonial frauds, shareholder and partnership disputes, financial or non-financial frauds, white-collar crimes, etc., need a scientific tool for investigation and settlement of disputes. Forensic accounting is considered as an indispensable tool for investigation and minimization of frauds in India, in particular and the world, in general.

Forensic accounting and auditing practice has been in vogue in the US as early as 1995. However, it is yet to be widely adopted in India. The Collapse of Enron Corporation and World Trade Center Twin Towers gave a lot of career opportunities to American forensic accountants. The forensic accounting concept is not new to India because it was present in some form even in the ancient times. The famous Economist, Kautilya had mentioned the idea of forensic accounting in his book Arthashastra in ancient times. He openly recognized the need of forensic accounting and accountants. Similarly, one can trace the idea of forensic accounting during the Akbar regime too, where Birbal the famous minister of King Akbar used different means tricks to investigate various crimes.

Accounting World Magazine, Forensic Accounting, Non-Corporate Sectors, Corporate Sectors, Indian Economy, Corporate World, Risk Management, Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, GAAP, Economic Losses, Fund Tracing, Crime Investigations.