SOCIETY NEWS

TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE STUDY CIRCLE

‘Tricks and Tips of GST compliances in Tally
ERP9’ held on 4^th and 8^th June, 2019 at BCAS Conference
Hall

The Study Circle meeting on this
important subject was led by CA Punit Mehta, a practicing fellow Chartered
Accountant and a Director of Aimtech Business Solutions Pvt. Ltd. Punit is a
regular speaker at various seminars and conferences. He has also conducted
several training and workshops on Tally software implementation at study
circles and branches of the WIRC of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of
India and of the BCAS.

In the course of the programme, CA
Punit covered the importance of the ‘Alt + N’ function, the key role of
Hierarchy for incorporating the GST number, the issue of invoice of different
locations with the same Tally company, issue of invoice to the customer for
various locations with the same ledger along with many more different tricks
for ease of compliance along with practical demonstrations. He shared his
in-depth knowledge with the participants and answered all the questions raised.

FEMA STUDY CIRCLE

Meeting on ‘Overseas Direct Investment – Procedure &
Documentation’ held on 8^th June, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall

CA Kaumudi Joshi led the discussion
on the subject ‘Overseas Direct Investment – Procedure & Documentation’. A
banker by profession, she shared her vast knowledge about the procedure to be
followed and documentation to be submitted to the authorised dealer in relation
to overseas direct investments. She shared her insights on common errors
committed while submitting the form for ODI. The members appreciated her
presentation.

HRD STUDY CIRCLE

Meeting on ‘Breath the Healer’ (Breath heals life! Breath is
life!) held on 11^th June, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall

Between birth and death, we live
life. How happy and peaceful our life depends a lot on our health. Proper
breathing is essential not just for healthy lungs but also for good health.

The presentation emphasized the
techniques of breathing and pointed out how we neglect giving time to
ourselves. By consciously training ourselves to breathe correctly, we can live
a long and healthy life.

Wrong breathing can be harmful. It
can cause blockages and prevent proper blood circulation. We forget that breath
is free and proper breathing is in our hands. We must learn to breathe
correctly, training ourselves consciously so that proper breathing is an automatic
occurrence.

The participants found the
learnings from Mr. Pravin Mankar very useful and requested more such meetings.

INTERNAL AUDIT CONCLAVE

‘Joining Hands to Raise the Bar – Taking
Internal Audit to New Heights’ held on 20^th and 21^st
June, 2019

The two-day foundation course was
conducted at Hotel Orchid and attracted a full house of more than 75
participants, with a healthy mix of practicing members as well as members in
the industry, including a few who came from outside the city.

The programme
provided the participants the opportunity to learn, unlearn, debate, discuss
and network. The eminent speakers, a careful mix of Chief Internal Auditors,
Audit Committee Chairs and Internal Audit Partners, shared their knowledge with
the participants, liberally interspersing their talks with their own
experiences in handling audits, from either side of the table.

CA Mario Nazareth, the
Keynote speaker, set the tone by urging participants to shake off their
complacency and be aware and responsive to the changing environment.

CA Satish Shenoy highlighted
the importance of being agile and thoughtful, acquiring new skill sets and
harnessing technology.

CA Ashutosh Pednekar spoke on
the audit of related party transactions from the viewpoint of the Internal
Auditor. His suggestions included comparing terms and conditions agreed with
related parties to those agreed with third parties and checking to see whether
related parties are rated and evaluated just like third parties.

CA Nandita Parekh brought out
the essence of the audit exercise by identifying the key Internal Audit
matters. She candidly shared the need to decide upon three things right at the
start of every engagement – the rules of the game, the stakes and the quitting
time.

The speakers on the second day took
the momentum forward and provided a lot of food for thought to the
participants.

CA Shailin Desai dwelt on
the differences between an Internal Audit and an investigation, highlighting
the use of technology to identify data patterns. He gave many practical
suggestions such as approaching industry forums to understand the specific
industry-related frauds and accessing the reporting done to the whistle-blowing
mechanism and their resolution.

CA Nawshir Mirza spoke about
the responsibility of those charged with governance in setting the tone at the
top for an empowered Internal Audit function. He emphasised the need to build a
strong relationship with the Audit Committee and insist on regular meetings.

CA Jyotin Mehta shed light on
auditing the Compliance Function which gives comfort to the Boards. He spoke of
the merit in auditing the benefits that accrue to the organisation.

CA Naren Aneja touched the
very nerve of every organisation – auditing the organisation culture. After all,
the cover-page of a recent Harvard Business Review reads, The main challenge
isn’t technology, it’s culture.

The thoughtfully-curated two-day
conclave left the participants wanting more. A unique feature of the programme
was that the participants took it upon themselves to introduce the speaker
before the session and propose a well-deserved vote of thanks at the end.

With a balanced and vibrant faculty
keen on sharing their practical insights into the changing role and
expectations from the Internal Auditor, the foundation has been well laid for
many more interesting programmes in the future.

HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT COMMITTEE

HRD Study Circle – ‘International YOGA Day Celebration’ held on 21^st
June, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall

From 7.30 to 8.30 a.m. on Friday,
21^st June, the Committee organised a ‘Yoga’ session jointly with the
ISH foundation. This was to mark the International Yoga Day which falls on 21^st
June every year.

Pradeep Thakkar, a professional
Yoga teacher and also an active member of the ISH Foundation, guided the
participants who attended the programme.

He demonstrated and guided
participants to perform different Asanas with ease and comfort for a
healthy body and mental relaxation. He also taught some ‘powerful’ Asanas
to improve memory and also for different types of discomfort such as sciatica,
maintaining mental fitness, to keep the body flexible and tone the muscles.

TARANG 2K19 – CA STUDENTS’ ANNUAL DAY held on 29^th June,
2019 at K C College Auditorium

Four months ago, when the students’
team met with the members of the Human Resource Development Committee, the
success and grandeur of the past eleven glorious years began to reverberate in
everyone’s mind.

It was decided then that the 12^th
edition of the Jal Erach Dastur CA Students’ Annual Day under the brand of
‘Tarang’ had to be bigger and better. With this in mind, the students’ team
embarked upon the journey with enthusiasm and dedication for ‘Tarang 2k19’
led by the student coordinators – Mr. Rohit Dhanesha and Ms. Devyani Choksi.

This year ‘Tarang’ altered its
eleven-year-old essay-writing competition and turned it into a story-writing
competition to create a fun-filled and thrilling experience for the students.
This year’s edition also witnessed the reintroduction of the debate competition
which was last witnessed in Tarang 2k17.

There was a huge enrolment of 450
students in spite of the delay in CA exams and the various due dates on the 30^th
of June, 2019. There were as many as 260 participants in the contests, with the
highest number of participants in the talent show and the photography
competitions.

The event was organised by the BCAS
Students’ Forum under the auspices of the Human Resource Development Committee
of the BCAS for the CA students. It was sponsored by Mr. Sohrab Dastur and
supported by the Late Mr. Pradeep Shah and Family. The Students’ Forum
comprised of a team of 37 dedicated and enthusiastic students. The event was
truly an event ‘OF CA students, FOR CA students and BY CA students’. It
completely changed the perception regarding CA students as they excelled in
their roles as event managers, anchors, dancers, and photographers.

The ‘Tarang 2K19’ event
was held at K.C College Auditorium on 29^th June, 2019 from 4.00 pm
onwards.

It commenced with the lighting of
the traditional lamp by the HRD Committee and the student coordinators – with
the Ganesh Vandana and the Saraswati Vandana playing in the background,
invoking the blessings of Lord Ganesh, the god of Wisdom and Maa Saraswati, the
Goddess of Knowledge.

The three finalist teams of the
‘Antakshari’ competition, named as ‘Deewane’, ‘Parwane’ and ‘Mastane’, were the
first to take the stage. It had fun-filled and innovative rounds to test the
quick thinking of the participants while tickling their lighter side. Everyone
was astonished to witness the accuracy of CA students, even in the arena of
Bollywood songs and trivia. The event was hosted by the dashing CA Vijay Bhatt
who was accompanied by CA Tej Bhatt. Overall, it provided a great start to the
event and the audience actively participated throughout the show.

The next event was the debate which
had eight finalists who were declared on the spot. The moderator was our very
own Mr. Ryan Fernandes, who left the audience amazed with his moderation
skills. The topic for debate was given on the spot by Mr. Ryan – ‘Should there
be a Dress Code in Colleges?’ The judges and the audience were astonished with
the debating skills of the students. The audience was equally involved. To add
to the excitement, the moderator switched the ‘for’ and ‘against’ sides in the
last round to assess the spontaneous thinking of the students and that was a
fun-filled experience.

Mr Sohrab Dastur, Sr Advocate the
brother of late Jal Dastur, in whose name the event is conducted, was present
for the debate.

After the debate, one of the
student coordinators, Ms. Devyani Choksi, came on stage to talk about the other
events of the BCAS for all CA students throughout the year. CA Rajesh Muni, the
chairman of the HRD Committee, then felicitated all the students who were
actively involved in the students’ activities throughout the year under the
auspices of CA Raj Khona and CA Jigar Shah.

The next event was ‘Talk Hawk’
(sponsored by Smt. Chandanben Maganlal Bhatt Elocution Fund) wherein the three
finalists had to give a four-minute Ted Talk on any topic. This enabled a level
playing field for all participants who came up with impressive performances. It
was indeed a close contest, even for the judges to decide the winner. One could
only gasp at the ability of CA students to give motivational talks with such
wit and vigour.

This was followed by a 15-minute
break.

Then the time was ripe for the most
awaited event of the evening – ‘CA’s got Talent’. The singers had assembled,
the guitars, flutes, and violins were in place, dancers were on their feet and
actors began polishing their lines before they could thrill the audience with
their mesmerising performances. To give a spirited kick-start to this most
awaited event, the students’ team presented a three-minute flash mob which was
choreographed by CA Rishikesh Joshi.

The audience could sense that the
amazing flash mob was just a trailer of what they were going to witness in the
talent show. And rightly so, the 13 performances in music (which included
singing, instrumental and beatboxing), dancing and other performing arts,
enthralled the audience. The judges were fascinated, rather bewitched, by the
talent of the young CA students. They indeed had a Himalayan task of choosing
the winner.

After the talent show, the winning
film of the short film-making competition – ‘The Screenmasters’ was played. All
the films were so precisely shot that one could easily imagine chartered
accountants as the next big-league film directors.

Next, the best photographs from the
photography competition ‘Khinch Le’ were displayed. For the public choice
award, photographs were put up by the participants on the BCAS Tarang Page and
the photograph with the maximum likes was declared the winner. Participants
were given themes on which they had to click creative photographs and post
these on the Facebook Page with an innovative tagline based on the theme
selected. This competition saw a record participation of 51 entries and kept
the Facebook Page thundering. With such mind-boggling photographs, the judges
indeed had a herculean task of selecting the best.

With the clock ticking away, the
participants began crossing their fingers as the ice was about to be broken.

The winners of the competition
representing their firms were finally announced. The list goes as follows:

Story Writing Competition – ‘Ink It!’

The entire evening was superbly
anchored by Mr. Monil Mehta, Mr. Akash Narayanan, Ms Raseeka Gokhale, and Ms.
Hemanshi Gandhi with their sheer display of energy and with mind-blowing
performances. The anchors were also supported by Mr. Nilay Gokhale, Mr. Kedar
Pandey, and Ms. Gauri Kakrania in hosting the show. Together, they ensured that
the audience had no reason to blink their eyes during the entire show.

Ms. Drishti Bajaj proposed the
well-deserved vote of thanks to Mr. Sohrab Erach Dastur for sponsoring the
annual day in the fond memory of his brother, the late Jal Erach Dastur, the
family of Smt. Chandanben Maganlal Bhatt for sponsoring the Elocution
Competition, the members of the Managing Committee and HRD Committee, the
coordinators of the Annual Day, the photographer of the event, the BCAS Staff,
parents and principals of students, sound technicians, the vibrant team of
student volunteers and all the students for participating in big numbers.

A scrumptious
dinner was arranged after the event for all those who marked their presence at
the Annual Day. The underlying purpose of the event was to not only develop and
encourage skills and extracurricular participation but to bring together the
entire fraternity, which was well achieved this time again, leaving some
unforgettable memories. With this 12^th edition scaling new
heights and raising the bar, all eyes are now set on what the next edition has
to offer.

BEPS & INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS STUDY
GROUP

Meeting on ‘How Tax Havens Damage Global Economy’ held on 1^st
July, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall

BEPS and the International
Economics Study Groups held their joint meeting on 1^st July, 2019 to
discuss ‘How Tax Havens Damage Global Economy’. CA Rashmin Sanghvi and CA Kapil
Sanghvi (Jamnagar) led the discussions and presented their thoughts on the
subject.

CA Kapil
presented the basics of tax havens, which are those havens, how do MNCs manage
to avoid paying fair and legitimate taxes in the jurisdictions they operate in.
CA Rashmin Sanghvi, on the other hand, presented the mechanics of how ‘Tax War’
is being fought through the use of several means like treaty shopping,
resulting in substantial loss to India. He brought out how MNCs and the world’s
leading developed economies are facilitating erosion of tax revenue to the
detriment of developing countries like India.

CA Abhay Bhagat shared his thoughts
on the book – ‘The Big Nine – How the Tech Titans and Their Thinking
Machines Could Warp Humanity’ by Amy Webb wherein it is explained how
Artificial Intelligence will, by design, begin to behave unpredictably,
thinking and acting in ways which defy human logic. The big nine corporations
(six American, viz., Amazon, Google, Apple, IBM, Microsoft and Facebook, and
three Chinese, Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent) may be inadvertently building and
enabling vast arrays of intelligent systems that don’t share our motivations,
desires, or hopes for the future
of humanity.

INTERNATIONAL ECONOMICS STUDY GROUP

Meeting on ‘Budget 2019 & Economic Survey 2018-19 @ Modi 2.0’
held on 11^th July, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall

CA Rashmin Sanghvi and CA Kapil
Sanghvi (Jamnagar) led the discussions and presented their thoughts on
the subject.

CA Kapil spoke
on ‘Economic Survey & Budget 2019 # Economy @ $5 trillion’. He presented
the strategic blueprint of the government through the investment-driven
virtuous cycle, nourishing dwarf to become giant, use of behavioural economics
in policy-making and data-driven government.

CA Rashmin explained in detail the
examples of ‘Virtuous cycle’ of rupee appreciation and ‘Internal vicious cycle”
of rupee depreciation. He also presented his thoughts on some of the key
proposals of the budget such as Zero Budget Organic and natural farming, water
issues, targeted schemes, DBTs, rural infrastructure, and so on.

CA Rashmin also presented the
mechanics of how ‘Tax War’ is being fought through the use of several means
like treaty shopping, resulting in substantial loss to India.

He brought out how MNCs and the
world’s leading developed economies are facilitating erosion of tax revenue to
the detriment of developing countries like India.

CA Abhay Bhagat shared his thoughts
on the Book, ‘The Big Nine…’ by Amy Webb which describes how
Artificial Intelligence will, by design, begin to behave unpredictably,
thinking and acting in ways that defy human logic.

The big nine corporations (six
American and three Chinese) may be inadvertently building and enabling vast
arrays of intelligent systems that don’t share our motivations, desires, or
hopes for the future of humanity.

FEMA STUDY CIRCLE

Held on 12^th July, 2019 at BCAS Conference Hall

It was a remarkable beginning of
the new year of the study circle, which was graced by the presence of more than
50 FEMA enthusiasts. The room brimming with the energy of young members and the
icing on the cake was the presence of learned group leader CA Manoj Shah,
Chairman Mayur Nayak and our newly-elected BCAS President CA Manish Sampat.

CA Manoj Shah led the discussion on
Foreign Direct Investment in India. The group leader discussed each regulation
of FEMA 20(R) along with the relevant FAQ published by the RBI which enabled
360-degree coverage of the topic. A lot of emphasis was placed on the practical
aspects of FDI during the discussion.