From The President

Dear BCAJ Lovers,

Every month, I ponder over what to write about in the
President’s Page. I am conscious of the fact that my illustrious predecessors
have been writing on academic matters and on technical subjects of interest to
members. On the other hand, I have deliberately stayed away from such topics.
The reason for this is that I believe I have got an excellent opportunity to
share my thoughts on other important topics with thousands of professionals in
and outside the country and by writing on topics or issues other than tax,
accounting, auditing etc., I am bringing to the fore issues of importance on
which very little discussion otherwise takes place amongst our profession. The
response that I have so far received from a large number of members has
encouraged me to continue this trend. I sincerely thank all the readers who have
been writing to me and sharing their views.

This month, I happened to attend a very impressive event in
Mumbai. The Business India Award function for the Businessman of the Year 2009
was held on 22nd February. Mr. Aditya Puri, the Managing Director of HDFC Bank,
was the recipient of this prestigious award this time. I learnt a few very
interesting facts about this man, who heads one of the most successful banks of
our country. He does not wear a watch, he does not carry a mobile phone, and
lastly, he leaves office every evening by 5.30. This is an amazing revelation
for all of us. If a poll is taken, I doubt if any CA would be leaving his office
by 5.30 every evening. Whether we are in practice or in industry, we are all
bogged down by our work and consider it mandatory to sit late hours at work. And
here is a man who heads the second largest private sector bank in India and this
gentleman can manage to go home at decent hours every day. Can there be a better
example of time management and also of delegation? Can there be a better person
to emulate than Mr. Puri? The BCAS has been conducting a course on self
development, which includes a session on time management. I invite our readers
to take these matters more seriously.

Another event that I attended was a fund raiser by the Terry
Fox Foundation. This organization, aided by many others in India and across the
world, has raised millions of dollars of funds for cancer research. Terry Fox,
as many of you would know, was a keen sportsman who, at the age of 18, was
diagnosed with bone cancer and had to have one of his legs amputated. Despite
this, he decided to run across Canada to raise funds for other cancer patients.
He ran more than 5,300 kms before he was forced to stop running due to further
spread of cancer in his body. He died at the age of 22. This spirit of being
alive while dying teaches all of us to give more than take. Even in his death,
Terry left a ray of hope for so many other cancer patients like him. He proved
that nothing is impossible if there is a will to achieve the seemingly
impossible. The BCAS Foundation, which is a charitable trust floated by the BCAS
and its leaders, has been conceived to do noble work. This year, we propose to
raise funds for providing educational loans/scholarships to financially weak CA
students. This proposal is still under finalization. I urge readers to loosen
their purse strings and to contribute generously to this cause. Let us spread
education far and wide and particularly amongst the financially weak. Recently,
we have funded the CA course fees for a young and enthusiastic son of a
vegetable vendor. There will be many such deserving cases. Do you have it in you
to come out and do something concrete for such people?

A member of BCAS happened to forward me an interesting
e-mail. It contained an excerpt from an article written by a professor of IIM
Bangalore. It spoke of how the fundamentals of business environment are changing
completely. There are several examples of how completely unheard of business
ideas/products have, virtually overnight, become competitors of well known and
well entrenched products. Such new ideas/products have displaced ideas/products
which were once considered irreplaceable. Thus, for example, it is reported that
the company that sells the largest number of cameras in India is not Sony or
Canon or Kodak but Nokia (through its mobile phones). Similarly, the biggest
name in the music industry today is not HMV or Sa-Re-Ga-Ma but Airtel, which
sells caller tunes that play for 30 seconds. An even more vivid example is the
one about who was the toughest competitor to British Airways in India in 2008?
Singapore airlines? Better still, Indian Airlines? Maybe, but there are better
answers. There are competitors that can hurt all these airlines and others not
mentioned. The answer is videoconferencing and telepresence services of HP and
Cisco. Travel dropped due to recession and people started communicating over
internet and other electronic media – thereby avoiding travel altogether. All
these examples, the author said, lead one to a gem of a question – “who is my
competitor?” Chartered Accountants also need to pay heed to this question. Who
could be a competitor to a CA? Is it an MBA? Is it a CFA? Or is it someone else?
Who knows, the answer could be something as out of the box as “the Internet”.
After all, don’t we have so many web sites offering tax return filing services
at rates which we CAs would not even pay our office boys? So, is it possible
that the internet will replace a CA one day? Possible. At least for compliance
related services. The point that I am trying to drive home is that nobody can
afford to remain complacent and bask in past glory. One can never anticipate the
direction from where competition can come and of what type it would be. At such
times, one needs to have a broad vision. I am reminded of a very illuminating
statement attributed to Swami Vivekananda, who was asked by a blind person, “Can
there be anything worse than losing our sight?” The Swami promptly replied,
“Yes, losing your Vision.” If any of you are interested in reading the mail
referred to above, do write to me and I will forward it to you.

The Budget has been presented to the country by the Finance
Minister and all of you would have already had an overdose of material written
on and about the budgetary provisions. I, therefore, do not intend to add
anything to what the Editor of BCAJ has written.

Encouraged (nay, virtually prodded) by some of the young and
enthusiastic members of the BCAS, I have plunged headlong into social and
professional networking web sites. We now have a presence on some of the popular
networking sites such as Twitter, Linkedin and Facebook. I have also started a
blog on wordpress. I invite readers to join us in the cyber world. I find it
much easier to keep in touch with my contacts there than personally. Also, I
have heard that soon e-mails may go out of fashion! That being the case, I am
preparing myself for the changed environment well in advance! Join me if you
desire.