PRAYAGRAJ, Dec. 22 -- To increase enrolment in commerce streams, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has launched "Project Vanijya", an initiative aimed at promoting commerce education and preparing globally competent chartered accountants. Under the project, efforts will be made to strengthen commerce education in over 29,000 UP Board-affiliated schools. Currently, commerce ranks third among the four streams at the intermediate level, behind science and arts, while agriculture has the lowest enrolment. Officials admit that most students prefer science, followed by arts, reflecting limited interest in commerce. As part of the initiative, a meeting of education board representatives from across the country was held in New Delhi on Friday to discuss ways to advance commerce education and enhance inter-board cooperation. UP Board Additional Secretary (Research) Skand Shukla represented the board at the meeting. Shukla said deliberations focused on integrating artificial intelligence (AI) into teaching, learning and assessment to improve quality and accessibility. Discussions also covered aligning commerce education with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, introducing industry-oriented learning at the school level, preparing students for emerging commercial roles, and using AI effectively in classrooms. The initiative comes amid persistently low enrolment in commerce subjects in UP Board schools. For the 2026 Intermediate examination, only 59,195 students opted for accountancy out of 24.79 lakh registered candidates. Similar trends were seen in 2025 and 2024, underscoring the need for focused intervention....