67th Annual General Meeting on 7th july 2016

Mr. Raman H
Jokhakar, President of the Society, took the Chair. Since the required
quorum was present, he called the meeting in order. All businesses as
per the agenda given in the notice were conducted, including adoption of
accounts and appointment of auditors.

Mr. Sunil B Gabhawalla,
Hon. Joint Secretary, announced the results of the election of the
President, Vice President, two Secretaries, Treasurer and eight members
of the Managing Committee for the year 2016-17. The names of members as
elected unopposed for the year 2016-17 were announced.

The
“Jal Erach Dastur Awards” for best feature and best article appearing
in BCAS Journal during 2015-16 were announced. The winners were: Keshav
Bhujle, Advocate and Aditya Thakkar, Advocate. The Special issue of the
Journal of July 2016 on “Expectations” was released by the hands of Mr
Arvind H. Dalal, Past President and Mr Anil J. Sathe, Editor.

New
Publications Internal Audit-Practical Case Studies and Non-Banking
Financial Companies-A Treatise were released at the Foundation Day by
the hands of Mr Harsh Mariwala, Chairman-Marico Limited.

At the
end, guests including Past Presidents of BCAS were invited on the dais
to share their views and experiences about the Society.

Outgoing President Speech

Good Evening members!

Welcome!

As
I stand on the last day of my term, a very familiar Hall and a familiar
podium, I extend very warm greetings to you and thank you for being
present today.

All throughout the last year, I had to start off
numerous events. Generally one had to start by addressing those on the
dais first and give an impression that things flowed from this direction
to that, and often rightly so. This final program, the AGM however is
different – everyone here is a member, everyone here is a fellow member and everyone here counts equally, bringing meaning and significance to the Society.

So once again WELCOME EVERYONE to this 67th Annual General Meeting.

In the schedule, this speech is titled as OUTGOING PRESIDENT’S Speech.
Although the AGM is meant to be serious business and ending of
someone’s term should normally add to that seriousness. Yet, I do feel,
that although the title of the talk is functionally accurate, it falls
short on the creative count. So maybe this year we rather give it a more
contemporary title – PREXIT.

You will appreciate
that someone, whose title will get the Prefix – PAST – after about 7
hours from now, would tend to be reflective and sentimental on his last
day as the President.

Well, it is a long program, and Chetan (in
lighter vain) has told me that his talk is going to be really LOOOONG,
so I will be SHORT and LIGHT.

Friends, the year began with the theme LEARN SHARE GROW. Let me share a few highlights of the year that went by.

Last
year we noticed that if we wanted to give better member service, we
will have to do a bunch of things. One of them was to align our
infrastructure to our activities and future plans. So today after nearly
2 years, we have a fine-looking and functional LEARNING CENTRE at Jolly
Bhavan, and moved non member facing BACKEND STAFF out to another larger
office space – a space that is roomier and more functional.

With
this, we have a 100 seater hall with a pre event area outside so that
our committees can have in house events that are more comfortable, cost
effective and smooth.

This idea was extended further, by
adding to our Digital capability, to reach members WHERE THEY ARE – so
we have set up a web cast Facility. With this, BCAS events can reach a
member where he is, and he will be able to partake of an event from his
desk top or mobile device. We did the first live webcast 2 weeks back,
of course with some glitches and we hope to do many more.

Another
dream that we had, was to make the premises available to members for
their EDUCATIONA L TRAINING PURPOSES at a small cost. This should help
the startups, medium and smaller practice units to arrange their in
house trainings at BCAS premises. I am glad to inform you all that today
members can book BCAS Hall along with all its facilities for this
purpose and make the most of their membership.

At times READING
takes too long for the POINT TO COME ACROSS. In this DIGITA L AGE, we
need the POINT to come through sooner and in shorter capsules. So we
placed before committees the idea of making SHORT VIDEOS of about 2
minutes, covering a topic within a subject, in a manner that makes the
content easier to grasp. We did make a start and I hope we do more of
those.

Last year on 6th July, I had mentioned about making
available BCAS events to outstation members. We could do a few events
this year on a STAND ALONE BASIS in Chennai and Coimbatore, which
were house full. Although there were more offers, we couldn’t spend
more time as one would have liked, but I hope the committees will
explore it further.

BCAS Publications – Although there is
a feeling that markets are flooded with Publications, I believe that
BCAS books are special in both content and context. BCAS books are low
on reproduction and trivia and deep and hard hitting on the main topic.
They give a balanced view and have practical utility. After the AGM we
will we have two AMAZING PUBLICATIONS released – one of them after a
long wait of 18 years. Few more are in the pipeline and they will come
out in next few months.

Since LEARN SHARE GROW was the theme, I wish to SHARE a few things I learnt.

First
– about the YOKE of TRADITION. It is pandemic in our country. Not that
tradition is not useful, but they have a place and TRADITIONS as
CONCLUSIONS should not fill the entire space by themselves. In various
meetings one would hear – We have always done it this way, we have
debated this before and concluded it thus, this cannot be done because
we did it in the past and it did not work. Since conclusions are
only PAST, and the PRESENT has obviously changed since then – we tried
to look at some of them afresh and question the issues all over again.
Like Thomas Jefferson said “IN MATTERS OF STYLE, SWIM WITH THE CURRENT,
IN MATTERS OF PRINCIPLE, STAND LIKE A ROCK” I am sure the OB on the dais
will carry, the spirit in those words, further.

On a LIGHTER NOTE, there is something interesting about being a PRESIDENT.

While
a lot of people wonder – being a President of an organisation must be
such fun, to open events, to write every month in the Journal, to be
welcoming speakers and guests and being under the spot light. I want to
tell you that there are two presidents – the one you SEE and one that
works behind the scenes in addition to his practice and family life.
President is an intertwined mixture of numerous functions – Let me share
a few:

Secretary and draftsman – He has to correct,
correct and correct – from the Spelling of Walchand Hall to making sure
the person’s name should have the salutation Mr or Mrs before it.

Benign Bulldozer – following
up, pushing – did that announcement go? Did you make sure he received
the email? The event you talked about – have you got a YES from the
speakers?

Creative director – He is designing. He has to
think, does that announcement seem aesthetically in line with the
Society’s image OR responding to someone who tells you – we have been
making the announcement like this since last 10-20 years – well Sir for
that very reason can we think of a different way.

Driver – Drive change. Change although CONSTANT, one learns that change is also the least ACCEPTABLE.

Traffic POLICE –
In the meetings, there are always some people who are VOCAL to the
extent all other voices JUST STOP coming out from every other throat in
the room. And then people look at you – WILL YOU PLEASE STOP the flow of
traffic from THAT SIDE and have other side’s traffic start.

 EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT –
I remember people calling – Sir Today’s LM is at IMC, can you tell us
the address. Well some member really making sure that only the President
can give the CORRECT Address;

Friends, there are so many
wonderful stories and anecdotes that adorn this ride, but let me stop
here as a short video is waiting for you all. HIGHLIGHTS of what
happened through the year, a few glimpse out of the 100,000 hours of
education in 7 minutes.

VIDEO

From what I saw in 5 years
as being an office bearer – BCAS is still being imitated – people from
outstation come to understand the format of events – organizations do
look up to BCAS for ideas and benchmark of quality. We had the largest
ITF till date with 260 participants, we had the largest Ind AS RSC till
date, the largest Service Tax RSC till date, the largest annual student
day event till date, crossing 500 for the first time.

But
numbers are really NOT that big a deal, it has never been HOW MANY but
HOW WE DO THINGS and WHY WE DO what we do. I can say with confidence
that the WHY and HOW of everything we do is clear and solid and you only
learn that fully when you stand here on the last day of your term.

Here
are two Testaments to that – A first time participant at the RSC on
Service Tax in Lavasa, shared this. He worked as a partner in one of the
largest professional services firms. He said even at 9.30 pm, as Mr A R
Krishnan was giving his presentation, not a single person got up to
leave although everyone had reached the venue that same afternoon after
travelling between 5-8 hours. He said when I went to the room, my
roommate wanted to discuss the next day’s paper till past mid night with
few others. The next morning everyone was in their groups by 8.30 am
after eating breakfast. He said in our firm we tried numerous ways, and
they haven’t worked – if instead of ending a fully sponsored offsite
event at 6 pm ended half hour late people would complain to HR that the
event finished late. Whereas here people pay to come and still are so
deeply involved in learning.

The next day I was talking to the
Chairman Govind ji, who has been running the committee for 6 years now
and one of the things he said was – since last 6 years, he had done all
he could to keep the fees for the RSC at the SAME LEVEL.

When I put these two stories together, I realized that till we have these two ATTRIBUTES in our ORGANISATIONAL DNA –

CULTURE and PASSION to LEARN and

TO SHARE with GENEROSITY,

WE ARE GOOD.

THANK YOUs
In
a divided world, where POLITICAL UNION split, states split (Telangana),
firms split, the Society’s 9 committees worked cohesively and with
common purpose. I want to thank every committee member, every convenor,
every coordinator of events every Chairman and anyone I missed?

In this list, I also wish to include those who could easily fit the category of NPA – NON PERFORMING ASSETS,
those committee members who’s INTEREST did not come for the entire
year. Well unlike the Reserve Bank of India, one would like to see this
only as a temporary phenomena and wish that their INTEREST will flow in and they will make up next year.

I am grateful to the Past Presidents,
the pillars of the Society and light houses for the OBs. Although all
of them were 5-10-20-30-40 years senior than I, they were friendly,
approachable, helpful, and generous with their time.

A special
bow to Late Narayan Varma, who would have MADE ALL EFFORTS TO BE here at
the AGM – we miss his radiant presence today. Although we don’t see
him, I am sure he must be watching the BCAS AGM from wherever he is.

Of course a big Thank you to the Office Bearers team. Well meaning and hard working individuals who have BCAS inscribed on their hearts.

Chetan – for being a great team mate, he ran the renovation part with Deepak and Pranaybhai with speed and precision.

Narayan – a very hard working man, a super go getter, you tell him something and it will be done.

Sunil – a silent worker, he lead the implementation of the new ERP at the Society in spite of running his practice single handedly.

And Manish, the youngest OB who picked up the accounts and helped in our deep cleaning effort and in turn lost all his blacks.

I wish the team on the dais a rich and rewarding year. They all deserve a big round of applause.

The
BCAS Team led by GM Jyoti Malkani, and the HODs Amit Singh, Shreya,
Javed, Upendra ….. and all the rest. Special mention of Rajaram – like
we have lalbaug cha Raja – he is BCAS cha Raja – he completed 25 years
earlier – and we did honor him earlier, but since some of you may have
known him for years and may not be present at that event please give him
a round of applause.

I want to thank my late Grandfather who
was a founding member of BCAS and introduced the whole family to BCAS,
my Father and Mother – Haren and Asha, both part of BCAS family for more
nearly 40 years, my wife Rashmi for taking care of me and taking care
of herself in my absence, and little Sangeeta with whom I can’t wait to
spend more time.

Friends – What unites us is far bigger and
compelling than what separates us. I want to thank all the volunteers –
contributors, writers, speakers, donors, well-wishers for their
self-less work for making a contribution to a larger good.

In
the end, I wish I had more time, I wish I had few more hands, I wish I
could be at more than one place at the same time. Perhaps the best
journeys remain unfinished, because they have no destination. And a
journey to LEARN SHARE GROW is certainly one of a lifetime.

Thank you

Incoming President’s Speech

Good Evening everyone.

My
colleagues on the dais Raman, Incoming Vice President Narayan,
Treasurer Manish, Joint Secretary Sunil & Incoming Joint Secretary
Suhas. My Managing Committee Members, Chairmen and Co-chairmen of
various subcommittees, the galaxy of past presidents present here,
Office bearers of sister organisations, Seniors in the Profession,
Ladies & Gentlemen. May I thank the Members for electing me as the
68th President of this elite Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society. I’m
incredibly conscious of the duties and tasks ahead and the honour you’ve
bestowed upon me. It’s with anxiety mingled with an excitement that I
look ahead to the coming year. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “Live as if you
were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever.” I welcome
you all to this AGM of BCAS, an organisation which has been an ocean of
learning for me.

But first, I simply must thank Raman Jokhakar
for his service as President over the last 12 months. It’s been a
pleasure to support Raman with his official engagements, and the
experience has been truly amazing. Under your dynamic leadership, we all
had the opportunity to be innovative. I am sure my colleagues will
agree that the motto for the year of learn-share-grow, geared the
Society to enhance its pace of imparting learning and acquiring
knowledge, sharing the same with its members and society at large,
thereby enabling growth of the professional colleagues.

The
theme Learn-Share-Grow was very well implemented. We did many different
things this year. The innovativeness was visible in novel ways of
applying technology to our events, especially during the budget season
when short videos of renowned professionals were made to capture views
of the budget both pre and post. The year was also marked with various
representations being made to the Central Government and also before
other regulatory bodies. The highlight for representation was BCAS being
invited for Samvad with Hon’ble Minister Smt. Sushma Swaraj, which
enabled us to be a part of the change agents by providing our views on
the tax structure of the country.

Raman, the journey along with
you has been a learning curve. As you once said that one term and one
year is too short to accomplish what one desires, but I assure you to
take your unfinished agenda further and shall strive to achieve the set
benchmarks of excellence and try to take the BCAS flag to newer heights.

Thanks, Raman, and I am sure you shall continue to provide your valuable inputs in the years to come as well.

As
I take the baton from Raman, my mind takes me to the days when I began
my journey with BCAS almost 22 years ago. The journey has been very
exciting, challenging and rewarding. BCAS as an organisation has also
transformed itself and grew substantially under various leaders’ year
after year, all leaving a mark of their functioning which has made BCAS
much more vibrant that too without compromising on its ethos, vision and
ideals which had been set by the founding torch bearers of the society.
I do pledge that the progress of BCAS shall gather more pace under our
new team and shall strive to achieve the objectives laid through the
Annual Plan for the year. We have circulated the proposed Annual Plan
for the year, and I would like to deal with the same briefly during my
address.

My father Mahendra Shah, also a CA, mentored me during
my articleship days, and he introduced me to BCAS on my qualifying as
Chartered Accountant. BCAS membership in the year 1994 opened up new
vistas of professional opportunities and the concept of learning and
knowledge sharing, which I feel were stepping stones of my professional
advancement. My father used to be regular with the RRCs till his health
permitted and used to travel to the then- exotic locations of Goa,
Mahabaleshwar, Matheran. I often wondered what they were actually doing
at the RRCs. My wife and children still doubt whether we seriously study
at the RRCs or just chill out??

When we are on the topic of
RRC, well, I had never dreamt that I would be at the helm of BCAS when
50th RRC of the Society is being announced. What better locale to
celebrate the Golden Jubilee of the prime event of BCAS than at Jaipur!
Memories of Golden Jubilee to be held in January 2017, I am sure would
be cherished much more amidst the Royal city of Maharajas. Amazing isn’t
it? I invite you all to come and be part of the celebration and great
learning. The International Tax Conference further doubles my joy by
spreading its wings beyond Indian waters. As you all are aware that this
year the ITF – Conference planned in August 2016 is in Sri Lanka, and
the bookings are already closed due to overwhelming response. So this
year we shall have a round of knowledge sharing beyond Indian
boundaries.

My honing of skills of learning and administrative
capabilities got a shot in the arm on my admission to the Core Group in
the year 2004, by my selection in the International Taxation Committee.
This is when I realised the importance of sharing and imparting
knowledge. During the years in Core Group I had occasions to closely
observe the functioning of illustrious Past Presidents as well as other
senior professionals. They were working selflessly for the profession
and always had the passion for taking knowledge sharing to a level where
it becomes part of their daily routine. They were bubbling with ideas
and had great clarity and dedication to execute their ideas for the
benefit of the Profession and Society at large.

If anybody wants
to learn and understand, how to run a voluntary organisation, create
effective leadership, develop and mentor professional with cutting edge
knowledge and partner in Nation Building, BCAS is the prefect role model
to follow. The Goodwill that this organisation commands is truly
incredible. BCAS has been a pioneer of many ideas which have been
emulated by other professional bodies including our parent organisation.
It is a matter of great pride when someone compliments you regarding
the quality and contents of various seminars and workshops and the
Journal, especially when that someone is none other than the President
of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India.

Before I
continue, I will like to offer my homage to the indomitable spirit of
Narayanbhai. Who is not amongst us today! He was a pillar of not only
BCAS but of the profession, society at large and in particular of the
RTI Movement. Passion at work was something one can imbibe from him. We
will miss him forever. On 19th Aug in memory of his birthday, three
organisations namely PCGT, DBM & BCAS have come together for a
lecture by Ms Aruna Roy, a co-creator of the RTI Act and a wellknown
Social worker.

Since RTI Act was formed, Narayanbhai has been
the key supporter to this and made the BCAS well known in the field of
RTI. The RTI Clinic still actively operates through its activists on
Saturdays at the BCAS Office.

The Society will continue to support and work for the RTI clinic.

In
the past few years we have observed that the professional opportunities
have grown many fold especially with the growing economy and
globalisation and the vision of the Government. With opportunities comes
challenges. Challenges to keep pace with new regulations, new laws and
technology. The pace has picked up so much that it may no longer be
possible to function as a proprietary concern or a 2/3-member
partnership firm. It is no longer possible for one CA to know so much,
and do effective compliance. It is time for collective wisdom. The
visionaries at BCAS saw this coming and started programmes on networking
and practice management and making their seminars more relevant. The
technology has also got shot in the arm with projects like live
streaming and online payment facility.

Still a great institution like BCAS faces greater challenges for it to become even greater.

Mahatma
Gandhi correctly said “The future depends on what we do in the
present”. The Society is not short of visionaries and time has come for
taking a quantum leap. Time is just ripe to reach out far and wide
throughout India to the professionals, in practise and in industry. To
take BCAS at their door steps, if not physically then through
technology. To be more effective and relevant as the voice of the
professionals in the policy making. To be thought leaders and active
collaborators to the cause of Professional Excellence and Good
Governance. To collaborate with sister organisations, commerce
associations and Government. Accentuating ‘out of the box’ thinking and
taking a path yet untapped. Let’s all join in this movement of:

“Today’s VISION, Tomorrows’ REALITY”.

As articulated in the words of Khalil Gibran: “we are limited not by our abilities, but by our Vision.”

Let me share a short story:

Once
upon a time there lived 3 fishes in a pond. One was named “Plan Ahead”,
another was “Think Fast”, and the third was named “Wait and See”. One
day they heard a fisherman say that he was going to cast his net in the
pond the next day. Plan ahead said, “I’m swimming down the river
tonight!” and so he did. Think Fast said, “I’m sure I’ll come up with a
plan.” Wait and See lazily said, “I just can’t think about it now!’ When
the fisherman cast his nets, Plan Ahead was long gone and safe. But
“Think Fast” and “Wait and See” were caught! Think Fast quickly rolled
his belly up and pretended to be dead. “Oh, this fish is no good!” said
the fisherman, and threw him safely back into the water. But, Wait and
See ended up in the fish market. That is why they say, “In times of
danger, when the net is cast, plan ahead or plan to think fast!”

It
is perfectly said that “Ideas are a dime a dozen; Execution is the
key”. For any VISION to be set into motion, there has to be the
development of Executional Capabilities.

These capabilities come from the 3 C approach of developing Competence, Commitment, and Character.

When
we talk about VISION and working towards making it a reality it’s not
about oneself; it’s a part of a team at BCAS. At one hand, I can say the
office bearers and managing committee are the heart of this function.
However, the core group acts as the backbone to achieving all this. As I
start my term, I look forward to immense focused support from my entire
team in making things possible.

The brief of our VISION for the year can be summarized as follows:

Imparting Values thereby creating Value of Brand BCAS;

Inspire Professionals to excel as Professionals and to contribute towards Citizens’ Empowerment;

Enabler of Sharing Knowledge through engaging CAs in Profession & Industry as well as Young CAs and Students;

Innovate the ways of imparting knowledge and its dissemination to masses;

Organizational
capabilities of BCAS to be enhanced through efficient and robust
processes & controls for events and meetings thereby improving
members’ experience; and

Nurturing & building confidence
amongst Young Professionals through improved learning methodologies and
thereby creating talent pool of Future Leaders.

At this
juncture, I would like to mention that a lot of effort has been put in
by the BCAS Office Staff in implementing the processes and controls as
per the suggestions of the Internal Auditors and Office Bearers.

We
know the Society well; now it’s time to share with the rest of the
world and involve them too in the process of knowledge sharing. Get
engaging and reaching out to as many corporates and members, influencing
them in becoming a Complete CA is what I visualize.

When we look
at the upcoming generation, we realise today that they know so much
more. Technology has given the students and youth so vast exposure to
knowledge that it’s great to learn and know from them. Last month the
9th Jal Erach Dastur Student’s Annual Day was one such great event. The
pool of talent was so large and each one so outstanding. Then there are
the youth, the younger generation who have so much potential to do
things and contribute to the Society.

This year I will also like to look into “Empowering the younger generation for future leadership”.

We
have seen the Modi Government bring about various changes in the
economy. We must continue to participate in reaching out to the
Government through various representations and meetings to bring about a
clean and democratic structure. Already the Model GST law is out, and
suggestions are in the process of being sent to the government. In this
area, I expect more dynamism and more presence at BCAS. As rightly put
by the Institute President Devaraja Reddy that BCAS is the younger
brother, thus we must encourage more support in nation building just
like the ICAI -our elder brother.

The Technological drive
started by my peers Ameetbhai, Naushad, Nitin, and Raman will continue
to be as dynamic as it is with the ever changing environment. My Vision
is to look for automation and digitization in every delivery be it
membership related, events or any publications. The Society has already
started with the Live Streaming of events from BCAS conference hall and I
intend to use this technology to its optimum.

The journal also
now carries an article on Twitter which has received a great response.
The Referencer this time is also available on the app. The online
payment is in the pipeline and gradually all services will be available
online on the BCAS portal. The Society is now having tremendous Social
media presence, and I look forward to making it more interactive and
live. The E-journal is being revamped and gradually will be more
user-friendly.

The Society is all about people and as I move
ahead this year I wish to continue taking people along, both young and
experienced. Looking for more people joining the VISION by becoming
members contributing to the society and making a difference in their
lives. I am also confident that the Managing Committee as well as the
various Sub-committees will contribute to fulfil the goals and targets
set for the year by giving constructive and innovative suggestions.

The pitch is ready, and so are the players, the match needs to be won…And the Victory is for all.

Brian Herbert said that:
The Capacity to learn is a Gift
The Ability to learn is a Skill
But the willingness to learn is a Choice.

I have made my choice, and as I conclude, I wish to say “I have learnt, but have still lots to Learn.”

I
welcome your suggestions and look forward to your interaction with the
Office Bearers. Your engagement, participation and involvement is
critical. I Thank you all and look forward to working together in
turning the VISION into REALITY.

THANK YOU…