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THIS competition was born in 1951 when Eric Morley, a PR man in a small British leisure company called Mecca Limited, conducted the first MW show in a dance hall. With an eye on media attention, he stipulated that contestants wear bikinis. Then came the saying that financial statements were no different from thongs and such stuff, for reasons now well-known.

Prize money has grown from £1,000 to a $225,000 and technology has made it possible for billions to watch the event on TV and through the Net. Hopefully, they have raised the fee for the accountants who do the tabulation work meticulously, without straying from their desks.

Sadly, MW tabulation is one area that is yet to find a mention in the list of other services posted on the Web site of the ICAI, though members are free to engage in the assignment at least for their own self-check, in the comfort of their home telly. There are judges and the judged, the viewers and the viewed, the scorers and the scored, those who see and those who measure. There is a real-time scoring process, though some of the sections may be pre-recorded and shown. And, as in computing the number of MPs, which depends upon population, MW weighs the phone-in votes based on the country of origin's population, to be fair to less populous countries.

For the pessimists who complain that it is all about looks, MW's defence is that it is about brains too and, as in CA exams with split papers, 50 per cent is for the interview, and the rest for `financial statements' and `statistics'. There would be many who don't speak English, and one wonders how the judges understand the interview responses, and record their final marks, no differently from our own evaluators.

Then, they turn to the accountant, the backroom boy, for tabulation, even as the audience enjoys live on-stage entertainment and a tearful farewell from the previous year's MW.

There is enough work for the CA, for there are winners and runners-up, apart from other misses — such as `Photogenic', `Scholarship', `Talent', and so on. So, be ready with your tools of trade.

hindubusinessline@hotmail.com

D. Murali

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