Reinventing India A Youth Perspective

No, you read it right. It was 8th June 2014 and not 8th June 2004. Why people are so excited over something that they should have had at least 10 years ago, befuddles me! Mumbai generates 5% of India’s GDP, but our infrastructure system is in shambles! Roads are potholed, traffic situation is pathetic, trains, buses are unimaginably overcrowded and people spit, shit and litter anywhere, without a care! We have to bribe through our noses to get our work done and we are still struggling to get decent internet connectivity. Above all, every once in five years we are prepared to get attacked by terrorists. We may be an alpha world city, but it is shameful that we are lagging far, far behind our western counterparts. And what’s true for Mumbai, is truer for India.

At 24, me and my generation have become responsible for the future of our country. We have our sights on the global leadership throne, but we have inherited an onerous, corrupt kingdom. Well, since we are intent on becoming world pioneers, we have set out to reform our own nation first; we are going to cleanse it, bring it up-to-date and then lead it.

We have already taken our first steps towards this goal by bringing to power a government that takes our lofty aspirations seriously and is committed to help us achieve it. Together we shall take India to the heights billions before us have dreamt of! And now to war! A war for upliftment of the poor and the illiterate! A war for saving the dignity of our nation! A war against the mediocrities that have far too long plagued our country!

We shall evolve, leaders.

“Achche Din Aane Wale Hain.”
The entire country is gushing over this one statement of divine prophecy. Mere five words have made the stock markets go tipsy. Some are saying that this is the start of a new era for India! This is all very endearing except for the one single problem that I have: Why aren’t the achche din here already?

Our country makes me mad. The oldest civilization in the world and we are still a developing nation! 5,000 years of history that we are proud of, but a shameful present and a stumbling future! 30 crore Indians are illiterate. That is the entire population of the United States of America! 15 crore are poor. That is more than Japan’s entire population. And by the way, the international poverty line is Rs. 90 per day. Which means that when I sponsor dinner to my friends, I spend more in one hour than what my poor brother earns in a month! It is 2014, and India has not been able feed, clothe and house all her citizens. In a completely unrelated story, India has the 6th highest number of billionaires!

While we are talking about citizens, let us take a few questions from the people of my generation.

“Why do I feel scared of getting out of my house alone at 10 in the night even if I stay in the capital of the largest democracy in the world?” asks a 22 year old Delhi resident, Aditi.

“What is electricity? Is it a toy? I have never seen it!” says 8 year old Shivappa who resides in a small village called Makki in Karnataka.

“Why do I have to pay chai-pani everytime I have to get my file removed in the Income Tax Office?” asks 20 year old Rajesh, a budding CA hailing from Patna.

All these questions, my predecessors have left unanswered! And now it is upto me to answer them.

At 24, I have come to a stark realisation that the future of our country has fallen squarely on my and my generation’s shoulders. And we have inherited an outdated, bureaucratic and debauched state from our predecessors. The present government, like each of its forerunners, has promised the sky; but then again, has there ever been a dearth of promises in our land? Where the previous one’s have consistently and cumulatively floundered is backing up those promises with tangible efforts.

The onus therefore to make amends rests completely and unequivocally with my generation. It is now our responsibility to ameliorate the past, augment the present and accelerate the future. And thankfully, all is not lost. Our country still retains the proverbial silver lining in the form of educated and motivated young population, large domestic demand base and high savings rate. Fortunately, these are the exact things we could not have worked without.

Global leaders at everything. That’s what we aim to become. Be it trade or sports or education or technology. We want to edify the next Einstein, build the next Burj Khalifa and grubstake the next Google. We want to outdo China at the Olympics and end tiger poaching. We want to be the next startup hub, the next global tourism hub and the next healthcare hub. We want LTE connectivity in each village and a dream job for each citizen. We want be at the top, of the top.

Naysayers shall complain that we are being immature, materialistic and we don’t know what the realities and the difficulties are. No offence sir, but we don’t care. Yes, it is a steep, treacherous road. It is going to be a dogfight and we know it. But we don’t just dare to dream, we dare to live our dreams. Frankly, it is not just our dream. Billions before us had the same vision. But we shall be the torchbearers to an advanced Indian state!

Chris Gardener, the motivational American entrepreneur wrote that “if you don’t take the necessary steps to make them happen, dreams are just mirages that mess with your head!”. We have already taken the first steps towards achieving our dream! Over 2 crore first timers, 18 and 19 year olds, a record participation, voted for the rehabilitation and reform of the Indian economy. We voted for CHANGE. We voted for a government with a track record of fulfilling promises. And believe you me, we require this government to make good on some pretty big promises.

Our first mandate to this government is that they need to very clearly understand that they are a government to my generation. We are an impatient bunch of people. We have an attention span of 140 characters or lesser, so we’d be grateful if you make your point quickly. We are practical and result oriented. We value guidance, but we value quantifiable efforts more; what we don’t value is futile vote bank politics and bureaucratic processes. We are motivated to achieve our goal and we require you to be equitable enablers so that we can partner in making India the global superpower it should be!

To play out your role of being facilitators of growth, progress and development, we have a four point agenda where the government needs to immediately ring in definitive reforms. Special focus needs to be given to rural areas – where most our country’s resources reside.

Infrastructure
While we may live in a modern day society, our infrastructure is severely medieval. How else would it be possible that almost 25% of our population lives without electricty! Why is agriculture still dependent on natural rainfall and animal resources? The infrastructure sector is the backbone of all investments into our country, therefore it is critical that this sector gets the much needed shot in the arm.

Transportation, energy, telecommunication, education and healthcare are amongst the most vital sectors requiring impetus. All the villages have to be connected by a network of roadways, railways and basic amenities like electricity and water. Innovative automation, especially in the agriculture industry, e.g. computer controlled ploughing or schemes like ‘e-Choupal’ which empower the farmers needs to be introduced. The new government has to reduce bureaucracy and usher adequacy, accessability and reliability to strengthen investor confidence.

Education
Education system today, is down in the dumps. It is unequipped, outdated and ridiculously inadequate. Just to give a perspective, children born today shall retire in the year 2080! Is it even distantly possible for us to provide them with the skills to survive and thrive that long? Al- ready today, there is a sharp disconnect between the educated skills and employable skills.
The need of the hour is to reengineer our education curriculum so as to embed employability into courses and forge stronger links between business and academia. Teacher education system has to be rebuilt, grounds up. Partnering with foreign institutions offering specialisation programmes shall upgrade the Indian education system to global standards. It is imperative for the new govern- ment to increase spending on education to 5% of GDP.

CORRUPTION
With the parallel economy running at $ 700 billion per year or 40% of our GDP, corruption is the biggest reason for inequitable wealth distribution in our country. It is literally killing our nation. Unfortunately, the canker doesn’t stop at illicit monetary transactions. Our biggest cause of worry is the corruption of moral and ethical values.

The new government has to put an end to corruption. Immediately. Permanently. Stringent anti-corruption framework and comprehensive education to impart discipline consistent with a national code of conduct for good citizenship shall act as strong deterrents to corruption. Policy makers may implement the Nordic model of governance which practically eradicated corruption in some developed Scandinavian countries. But most of all, Indian citizens need to realise that corruption can only be completely evicted from within, not without.

ECONOMY AND GOVERNANCE
Our economy is dithering due to high levels of inflation, instable currency and the alarming levels of fiscal deficit. The zooming stock markets are nothing but a heightned sense of exuberance, the fundamentals beneath the dizzy heights are yet to improve. Also, with only 3% of the entire population paying taxes, the government has to take some hard calls to increase public revenues, improve economic factors and bring sanity back to the land.

Softer issues like casteism, communal disharmony, gender inequality and rampant crime are still affecting our society Despite living in the 21st century it is deplorable that a woman is raped every 20 minutes in India. We, as a society, are self-conceited megalomaniacs. Freedom of expression is trampled on regularly and intolerance is  an instinct embedded deep within the Indian psyche. It has become necessary now to attack this malaise from  a national platform. Women empowerment has to be a agenda item. Implementation of radical and stringent penal practices has become a necessity. Governance has to be redefined to mean Minimum government, Maximum governance!

HOW CAN CHARTERED ACCOUNTANTS HELP?
While as a member of Young India I am responsible to contribute towards India’s growth and progress, being a qualified chartered accountant makes me doubly account- able to achieve my generation’s goal for India. Our qualification gives us the skills and the access to almost any industry we choose. It charges us with the responsibility of being ombudsmen to our society to ensure enhanced transparency and accountability. But how do we dispose these responsibilities? What measures do we take to en- sure that CAs are at the forefront of all professionals?

Contributing towards rural and semi urban development Growing investment in agriculture, relocation of manufac- turing base to tier II and tier III cities and acceptance of the concept of inclusive growth shall generate consider- able requirement of financial administration, risk manage- ment, tax planning, accountancy, legal advice and better governance in rural and semi urban areas. The time is ripe for CAs to increasingly set up proprietorships and partnership firms here. We can assist the local panchay- ats in areas of governance, taxation and finance planning. One more area of contribution may be compliance to the latest Corporate Social Responsibility provisions, where- by companies shall be able to uplift rural and backtroden areas.

CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS GLOBALISATION
According to a United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) survey in 2012, India is the second most important foreign direct investment (FDI) destination for transnational corporations after China. Further, the new government’s focus on improving strategic ties with key foreign powers and its determination to simplify the investment process shall propel FDIs in our country.

There is therefore, a burgeoning requirement of CAs in the areas of double taxation avoidance, transfer pricing and corporate laws. IFRS, sustainability reporting, UK Bribery Act and SOX are also becoming a compliance necessity for Indian multinational conglomerates. Specialising in these areas shall help us better align with these requirements and supplement the global India case.

CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS AUTOMATION
Technology is slowly permeating and disrupting every sphere of business. The risk landscape of various sectors like banking, insurance, capital markets, telecommunication, etc. has undergone a paradigm shift with increased dependence on internet and technology. Also, with the proliferation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions, organisations today have lesser control over data integrity, privacy and reliability. There is an urgent need for CAs to enhance their risk management expertise by equipping themselves with skills necessary for identification, assessment and mitigation of IT risks.

CONTRIBUTING TOWARDS CEASING CORRUPTION IN INDIA
Being CAs we are always precariously treading the thin line between tax evasion and tax planning. Similarly, cor- porations today are always trying new ways to ‘improve’ their financial statements. It is imperative therefore, that we ensure real compliance with various provisions of the taxation laws and reporting standards, that we steadfastly uphold our ethical values and moral standards and ensure that we neither allow nor abet any act of malfeasance.

Public and government sector have recently been riddled with scams like 2G and Commonwealth. CAs have to ensure transparency, by making the government accountable towards the country and its citizens for the utilisationof citizens funds through exhaustive public audits.

CONTRIBUTING TO ENTREPRENEURSHIP

Our nation is becoming increasingly entrepreneurial. There has been a huge spurt in the number of startups in the recent years and the trend is going to be an up- swing. With a huge demand for support areas like market research, venture funding, financial modeling or business value chain implementation, CAs have to hone the skills they already have to be at the forefront of this bull wave!

THE NEED TO REINVENT OURSELVES

It is evident that there is a lot of opportunity for us, CAs,to make our mark in India’s next decade of advancement. However, it is now inevitable that we reinvent who we are! Whether in practice or industry, we can no longer solely remain financial stakeholders of companies. We have to become business stakeholders!

It’s going to be an uphill task, history and tradition are against us, but it can be achieved. What we need is a catharsis! A step back to realign our interests with those of our nation. We need to innovate some of the core elements of our present day qualification so as to make it more attuned to the present day scenario. For instance,
•    The current curriculum and the examination pattern needs to be revisited. Inputs should be drawn from industry, practices and international institutes so that the curriculum ensures employability and equips our students to have an equal standing with their global counterparts. Special attention should be awarded to cross functional training since today, MBAs, cost accountants, financial analysts, etc. have started replacing CAs, even in core areas like finance and taxation.

•    Is an audit firm oriented articleship the only option for practical training? Why can’t students gain industrial training for the entirety of their tenure from some of the top companies of India? We need to realize that the students have two diets of careers to choose from, practice firms and industry. It is imperative that a solution is derived for the blinkered audit based training approach.

•    Partnering with foreign institutions has become the need of the hour. With CA students opting for multiple degrees, the institute should ensure that the skills developed by the CA institute are not put to waste. Collaboration, not competition is the way forward. Also, with multiple professional degrees, what matters is that CAs continually update themselves in their area of work and remain relevant. However, it is doubtful whether the present CPE norms ensure continuous education. A bitter pill that needs to be swallowed and worked upon.

•    Most importantly, the ICAI needs to ensure that it remains strongly in control of the central elements of our profession – accountancy, taxation and audit. It needs to retain relevance by producing quality CAs, and work against becoming an exam conducting body generating dignified accountants!

It is imperative therefore, that CAs allineate themselves to the big picture. This nation is now in the hands of a new generation, our generation. Fearless and unafraid, we are the custodians of India’s advanced future. The revolution has already begun. And we will emerge victorious. We shall evolve, leaders!

Achche din are here!