The Annual General Meeting of the Society was held at the Walchand Hirachand Hall, Indian Merchant Chambers, Churchgate, Mumbai on Monday, 6th July 2015.
Mr. Nitin P. Shingala, President of the Society, took the Chair. Since the required quorum was present, he called the meeting in order. All business as per the agenda given in the notice were conducted, including adoption of accounts and appointment of auditors.
Mr. Narayan R. Pasari, Hon. Joint Secretary, announced the results of the election of the President, the Vice President, two Secretaries, the Treasurer and eight members of the Managing Committee for the year 2015-16. The names of members as elected unopposed for the year 2015-16 were announced.
The “Jal Erach Dastur Awards” for best feature and best article appearing in BCAS Journal during 2014-15 were announced. The winners were: C. N. Vaze, YogeshThar and Anjali Agrawal.
The Special Edition of the Journal dated July 2015 on “Ethics” was released at the hands of The Editor, Mr. Anil J. Sathe. He mentioned about the special issue articles on Ethics;Fundamental and Operational Ethics, Morality of a Lawyer’s Ethics, “Ethics” isn’t music for the entertainment world, “Ethics” in Architectural Professional Practice and Ethics in Media: A Depressing Scenario.
Thereafter, Ms. Purnima Sharma and Ms. Manju Joshi were felicitated with a plaque by Mr. Narayan Varma. Ms. Purnima Sharma was felicitated for her courage and outstanding efforts to become a Chartered Accountant and be an active citizen, inspite of having hearing and speaking challenges. Ms. Manju Joshi was felicitated for providing untiring assistance to Ms. Purnima Sharma and for motivating her to be an active citizen and helping her to become a Chartered Accountant.
New Publications were released at the Annual Day. Mr. Mihir Sheth spoke about the new book on “Thought Mailers- A Compendium” released in the hands of Mr. Narayan Varma.
“Namaskar Ki Bhet” was released in the hands of Mr. Pradeep Shah.
Three Lucky Winners of the Learn Share Grow, a contest conducted by Bombay Chartered Accountant Society were announced by Incoming President Mr. Raman Jokhakar.
Outgoing President Speech
Incoming President Raman, my colleagues – Mukesh, Narayan, Sunil, incoming VP Chetan, incoming Office bearer B. Manish, Respected Past Presidents, Seniors and Friends.
At the end of such a profound experience, I stand before you today with a mix of emotions:
- gratitude for learning so much over the past many years that will stay with me forever
- disappointment that some of the targeted accomplishments could not be achieved
- sadness that the routine I have come to enjoy will now change
- relief that the responsibilities come to an end.
I am humbled by the affection and honour bestowed upon me.
Let me begin by sharing my perspective of what’s happening around us. It is said that one cannot begin to comprehend the Future without understanding the Past. When it comes to dealing with the Present, we need to grasp the exponential rate of change that continues to accelerate. Rapid changes are sweeping not only the field of technology but also the areas of business, law and regulations and the human life itself.
Alvin Toffler, the celebrated author, in his book “Revolutionary Wealth” has given a magnificent metaphor for the rate of changes witnessed in various institutions in American society, in the chapter titled “Clash of Speeds”.
First at 100 mph, the fastest change agents are companies and business who drive many of the transformations of the rest of the society. They use technology to blast ahead and force suppliers and distributors to make parallel changes, all due to intense competition.
At 60 mph is the family that has morphed in the face of industrialisation where it shrank and abandoned the old values and inter-dependence.
Clocking at 30 mph is the labour movement slowed by the change of muscle work to mind work, from interchangeable skills to non-interchangeable skills and from blindly repetitional to innovational tasks.
Sputtering along in the slow lane are government bureaucracies and regulatory agencies running at 25 mph. Coming along at 10 mph are the school systems. Toffler bemoans the lack of competition and prevailing culture at the educational institutions that was designed to serve an outmoded factory-style industrial age.
At 3mph, Toffler tags political structures that are the American Congress, the White House and the political parties themselves.
Lastly, the tortoise speed of 1 mph is captured by the slowest changing institution, today’s legal system.
The above metaphor, I believe, would be equally applicable to the Indian landscape.
Toffler’s observations came about a decade ago. Today we find that even the laggard institutions are accelerating. Speaking last week, Mr. Mukesh Ambani commented that with Digital India, the government has moved faster, as an exception, than the industry. The Prime Minister’s vision of Digital India has the potential to transform fundamentally the lives of 1.2 billion Indians using the power of digital technology.
What do such external challenges arising from rapidly changing landscape mean for voluntary associations? I believe their importance will increase. Voluntary organisations will continue to act as a catalyst for intellectual synthesis, provide people to people connect and fill the void created by the technology. But it will require such organisations to innovate continuously to stay relevant and to adapt quickly.
I recall a discussion Raman and I had with Mr T. N. Manoharan during the ITF Conference in Chennai last year. He believes that to stay relevant and make an impact, we will require to build excellent research capabilities to bring value to the members and support recommendations and representations to the authorities with data and statistics.
Apart from external challenges, we also need to deal with the internal challenges which come from growing scale of operations as well as expectations. As I stated in my acceptance speech last year, the annual hours of education increased multi-fold over last two decades. We clocked 132,000 hours in 2013-14 as well as in 2014-15. At the same time, the volunteers, pressurised by professional and personal commitment,are unable to devote as much time as in the past.
To effectively face these challenges, we must transform the organisation radically by enhancing our infrastructure and services and by attracting and retaining quality staff.
I am glad to report that we have made some progress on these fronts. After several years of efforts, we have acquired additional office premises, under leave and licence, effectively from 1st July. I must express immense gratitude to Kishorbhai, Pranaybhai, Pradipbhai Kapasi, Shariq, Sanjeev and Naushad for guiding the OBs through this process. Now, Raman and team are working tirelessly to reorganise the two offices.
We have also brought on board new staff in key office management roles that will strengthen the administration. The process of evaluating their performance is being aligned to increase their quality and help reduce the burden on the volunteers.
Voice of Customer (VoC) has emerged as an important tool in the modern management. We have begun a process to seek structured feedback from our members and the participants through online surveys. I am sure this will provide valuable guidance to the office bearers, the staff and the organisers in improving our services.
The office admin management software – we call it OMS that was custom developed about 12 years ago is falling short of our growing needs. It was developed without any provision for imprest tracking and service tax and the numerous changes and patchworks have made it unstable. The work is already in progress to revamp or replace the outdated OMS.
On the academic front, we attempted several new programmes and innovative ideas. While the Annual Report and the Quarterly Core Group Newsletters provide these details, I am glad to report that our Committees continued to organise outstanding learning programmes and activities in keeping with our finest tradition. I thank all Chairmen, Co-Chairmen and Convenors for their tireless efforts. I must acknowledge the maiden work done by the newly set up Corporate and Securities Laws Committee. My thanks and compliments to Kanubhai for accepting my request to Chair this new Committee and giving us a strong opening in this field of growing importance.
Today is also the occasion to express my sincere gratitude and thanks to everyone for helping me sail through a satisfying year.
Our Past Presidents remain the pivots of our Society. I am grateful to each one of them for having guided me throughout,and gently nudging me back on track whenever I drifted.
The Managing Committee members have been a source of constant support and guidance. I am thankful to each one of them.
The Core Group has been and will always remain our heart. We opened an additional channel of communication on WhatsApp group for instant communication but of course we need to be disciplined in use of this channel. I am grateful to each and every Core Group Member for their dedication and sincerity.
My office bearer colleagues have supported me like solid rocks. Raman, Mukesh, Narayan and Sunil have worked round the clock and shared my burden in equal measure.
Ever young and zestful Raman with his forthright and quick action oriented approach moved shoulder to shoulder with me through the year. With the United Nations declaring India as having the world’s largest youth population, I am happy we have entrusted our leadership to an ever young leader.
My heartfelt thanks to everyone in our staff,including the office boys,for their hard work and wholehearted support! And also for coping up with the challenges brought by various changes during the year. During the year, Raman held several innovative sessions to coach them. We continued to push them to perform better. A major challenge for our staff remains in dealing with multiple bosses. I must compliment them for doing a super job and look forward to them keeping up the momentum.
We continued to receive excellent support from our sister organisations and organise various joint programmes. I am confident this tradition will continue and strengthen further. My sincere thanks the office bearers of the AIFTP, CTC,STPAM and WIRC of ICAI for their valuable co-operation.
My journey at the BCAS has enriched me tremendously:
- made close friendship with my OB colleagues and other
Core Group Members
- acquired rich experience from leading many activities
- learnt from the wisdom of the elders
- learnt to remain objective and unbiased
- found excellent motivation, guidance and support for upholding professional ethics and values
- caught contagious passion and energy from Raman and various members of the youth group – including the youngest member Narayanbhai.
One singular activity I relished the most throughout the year is writing the monthly column, “From the President’s Page”. It pushed me to research issues, stretch my thinking and articulate. I found this exercise greatly educative. In his keynote message to the advanced professional writing workshop, Bansibhai quoted a couplet from Manoj Khanderia’s poem. I find this stanza aptly expresses my sentiments. It reads:
The journey through the BCAS gives us opportunities tointeract, learn and get a feedback from a large body that includes seniors, peers and the youth. With mentoring and moulding from stalwarts, one grows from a member to an active volunteer, and finally rises as a leader. It is an amazingly enriching experience.
The challenge for us is to make such an awesome experience visible, specifically to the younger members. All of us have an obligation to encourage and push these younger members, to activey involve themselves and reap the tremendous benefits and contribute to the Society as well. I am sure Raman, Chetan and other successors will work ceaselessly to ensure that BCAS continues to fulfil this objective and thereby thrive to the eternity. Let me assure you Raman and Chetan, I will be around any time you need me. And don’t worry, I will not behave like a mother-in-law! My wife Trupti, daughter Parnasi, son Mohak and my parents have been the pillars of my strength. I could not have achieved this without their wholehearted support. It is not possible for me to express my gratitude to them in words.
At the end, I would like to quote Dr. Joseph Murray’s motto that is close to my heart. “Service to society is the rent we pay for living on this planet”. I see many stalwarts in our fraternity whose lives echo this motto. I hope to emulate their examples, at least to some degree.
Thank you.
Incoming President’s Speech
My story
In 1998, when I became a member of the BCAS after passing the CA examination, I never imagined that I will stand before you, at an AGM to carry on the torch of our Society as its 67th President.
As a proud third generation member of the Society, this is an important milestone for me and a moment of honour to carry on 66 years of legacy of LEARNING, SHARING and GROWING. When I passed my CA exams, the first instruction from my father, who is also a CA, was to become a BCAS life member. Since then, whenever I had to look for professional education, I turned to BCAS. So, I can say that I have GROWN UP in BCAS and therefore here I stand, humbled, grateful for your trust, and mindful of my responsibility!
The last year was an epic journey of learning and stepping up to serve the BCAS under Nitin’s leadership. He looked both outward for new initiatives and inward for strengthening the people, infrastructure and processes. We took decisions that had to be taken. As the VP works closely with the President, I was a witness to Nitin’s approach – quiet, firm, courageous and decisive. We shared a wonderful chemistry that I will relish for years to come.
BCAS credo
BCAS is driven by its VOLUNTEERS – their spirit and generosity. Over the last several decades, so many people have GIVEN so freely – their time, knowledge, resources, connections, capabilities and much more. There are so many silent workers, behind the scenes volunteers, who matter to the Society. I cannot thank them enough, for all they have done and all they will do. BCAS Volunteers truly epitomises what Martin Luther King said: EVERYBODY CAN BE GREAT BECAUSE EVERYBODY CAN SERVE. I believe, that as a Society we just don’t print a Journal and Referencer, we don’t just create learning events, we help transform CAs to what they can be! We enable them to achieve their dreams through LEARNING, SHARING AND GROWING. We are not just an organisation from a legal – functional sense. We are a movement of partners, committed to the pursuit of knowledge that improves the profession, strives to make our laws and governance more humane and sensible, make our individuals shine with cutting edge knowledge and virtuosity and in that sense every BCAS volunteer makes our nation more wholesome.
Over the decades, the Society has set A STANDARD in professional education. When we went to Udaipur for the last RRC, members from outstation said – when BCAS says something, we derive a new meaning to what we already knew. People look up to our Exactitude and Care. This ecosystem of beliefs and actions is the soul of our existence and as volunteers we are delighted to live by it, in every possible way.
Another facet of the BCAS is – as CAs so many of us are competitors, yet we are sitting together, learning from one another, sharing our experience and knowledge and supporting one another! A number of lawyers who have come to our events have told me that, they do not have anything like this. Some are fascinated by the level of discussions at our events. One very eminent advocate, who spoke at one of the residential courses, shared that on his visits to Mumbai, he checks with BCAS to see if there is any event happening where he can participate and join the discussion. This spirit to LEARN, SHARE and GROW is precious and unique. This spirit had brought about the genesis of BCAS and is what we are committed to nurture.
The strength of the BCAS lies in its leadership, its committees which are decentralised DECISION CENTRES and the space it gives to individuals to express their creativity. This freedom results in a vibrant buzz that makes our events and initiatives so unique that many others emulate.
Lastly, a special mention is a must for the string of 66 Presidents, the enablers who made BCAS bigger than the sum of individual ambitions. I have seen and worked with a number of them. They are like Lighthouses – No matter what time it is, they have guided, supported and delivered always. I salute them all.
The challenge
Having said that, the landscape around us has changed and is changing faster than ever, since the early days of BCAS. – Professionals, whether participants to our events or faculty, have tremendous time pressures and other pressing exigencies. The freshly qualified have varying and different needs.
– Add to that, the information overload. From numerous seminars, portals, organisations, study sessions, fast and frequent changes in laws and regulations and decisions. The quantum and complexity of all this is unprecedented.
Where does BCAS stand amidst all of this?
I have seen that BCAS continues to work with the same sense of purpose and passion it is known for. We just had the largest ever 9th Residential Study Course on Service Tax and VAT in June and we are looking at the largest ever International Tax and Finance Conference next month. Nearly 700 participants attend the 4 Flagship Residential Courses each year. In spite of challenges, the Committees have given their best.
How do we get to the next
Still, a great institution always faces greater challenges for it to become even greater. The most difficult part of success is that one is expected to succeed all the time. Also, once anything becomes large and notable, expectations rise.
WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
HOW DO WE GET TO THE NEXT LEVEL?
As a Society, as the managing committee, as sub committees – we need to ponder on these questions!
I wish to share some of my thoughts and vision for BCAS:
1. At a very fundamental level, we need to question all that we do. We will need to return to the WHY we continue to do what we do. Are we ALIGNED and RELEVANT to those who we seek to serve? Every committee will have to CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO to see if there is another way? Do we stay the course or change the course?
Traditions have their place. Yet the traditions can also bind us, if not REFRESHED regularly. Let me tell you a story.
A Guru and his disciples meditated early morning in their ashram. The ashram cat started to come by and disturb them. The Guru said – “when you meditate, tie the cat to the pole”. So that’s what they did each morning. A few years later, the Guru passed away. Some years later the cat died too. Now, the disciples began to wonder, the Guru had told us “WHEN YOU MEDITATE, TIE THE CAT TO THE POLE”, so they went out and brought another cat and tied it to the pole for their morning meditations.
The story is symbolic. However, innovation is killed because of the cats like
“WE ALWAYS DO IT THIS WAY” “IT CAN’T BE DONE”
“WE DID IT LAST TIME AND IT DOESN’T WORK”.
As an organisation we will need to question
– ARE WE REALLY DOING WHAT IS NEEDED?
– ARE THERE OTHER WAYS TO DO WHAT WE NEED TO DO TO HAVE A BETTER OUTCOME?
– ARE WE CHALLENGING THE STATUS QUO ENOUGH!
I have learnt this from my teacher, NO MATTER HOW GOOD IT GETS, IT CAN ALWAYS GET BETTER! ITS LIKE GOING FROM PEAK TO PEAK!
1. GOING DIGITAL– we need to reach the members –“TO MAKE AVAILABLE” what we have to offer. We started E Learning when the CA profession did not know about it. We launched the E Journal with 12+ years of material available with search features, a WEB TV that enables members to look at our events at their convenience. We will have to reach where the member is more and more. We aim to create a DIGITAL repository of knowledge. I am sure the Committees will think this way for each of their events.
2. Thought Leadership – on crucial laws we need to build thought leadership. Can we go a step beyond representations, and say this is how it ideally should be? Collaborative thought leadership of the best minds around will make all the difference. As GST is on the Drawing Board, the Indirect Taxation Committee has been putting together material to see how we can do this. We have high expectation from this group.
3. Another area I feel we can change is the way the Representations are done – with more economics, statistics, data and quantification, giving ranking to our reasoning and also correlate them with larger public policies. We will need to find a way to close the chain of getting our recommendations; grievances and representations reach the decision-makers and ensure they are considered. The technical committees, I am sure, will consider this afresh.
4. To carry out ADVANCE WORKSHOPS that lead to improved technical skills and eventual revenue generation for our members. Some of our long duration courses are in vogue and well acclaimed and yet we need the NEXT LEVEL, something of a higher order, beyond the preliminary, more issue based and utterly current.
5. One area that we tested was to have customised trainings for corporate members. I did try this a year ago and with a barrage of new changes coming, we will have more opportunities to do this again this year with the support of the technical committees.
6. Work with Students – we touch the future when we work with students. There is a lot that BCAS can offer to the Students. The Students Day event was greatly successful. The DREAM TEAM has started to plan for the next year immediately. They are filled with enthusiasm and aspiration to learn. Just the last week, they contacted the RBI and we are having an interactive session at the RBI in the next week.
7. Build Publications Rack – we would like to have shorter, easy to read and easy to publish books out. They can be short, deal with a topic and not the whole SUBJECT. Often there are incredible issues that come up at study circles, if we can capture them and build upon them we can have a crisp, short, pithy and useful publication quickly. Certain publications are perennial ones, but we run out of them. Say a Mandatory Accounting Standards book or Exploring FEMA or a book on DTAAs or Service Tax that was released in June. Each sub-committee will need to rank their publications into two – ones that are perennial – and others that are CURRENT and having a shelf life. We need to build this strategy clearly and keep it in our focus. We are exploring ways where this can be done and we will see a number of publications from a few committees.
8. Like Nitin mentioned, we are going for a makeover of the current premises into a LEARNING CENTRE where members – CAs and Students – can come and study, learn, collaborate, and contribute. We got qualified staff, but we needed a better infrastructure for them to perform, more space, better space.
9. Data driven – we have started surveys since last 6 months. I have always wanted this since my early days in the Journal Committee, to find out what do people really want? To know the preferences and expectations, and interact with the audience, we are using technology to get some solid data.
In all this, we do remember that we will always keep the vision of the BCAS at the forefront. In the words of Thomas Jefferson “IN MATTERS OF STYLE, SWIM WITH THE CURRENT, IN MATTERS OF PRINCIPLE, STAND LIKE A ROCK”. This credo has and will keep BCAS relevant and useful in times to come.
The next 5-10 years will be most exciting and transforming for our country. The government is refreshing, wanting to do something, the demographics are favourable to our nation, technology and innovation are peaking. We have to play our part.
Over the years, the President is expected to be the Chief Innovation Officer. He must innovate, enable, collaborate, invigorate, be the chief products officer and support the committees to run with speed and precision, engaging all the talents of our people, irrespective of title. I will do my best and with the blessings of the seniors, and cooperation of my colleagues in the MC, the Core Group and the BCAS staff.
However, I believe, one year is too short. Looking at the tasks ahead, I am reminded of 2 quotes:
One, that I read recently – THE MATH OF TIME IS SIMPLE: YOU HAVE LESS THAN YOU THINK AND NEED MORE THAN YOU KNOW.
And the other, my choir teacher told us – YOU GOT TO DO WHAT YOU NEED TO DO IN THE TIME YOU HAVE GOT.
We will strive to converge these two divergent looking set of words as we start.
THANK YOU!
67th Founding Day Lecture Meeting by Shri S. Gurumurthy, Chartered Accountant on 6th July, 2015: Shri S. Gurumurthy on India Transformation-Challenges & Opportunities
The 67th Founding Day lecture meeting was held at the Walchand Hirachand Hall, Indian Merchant Chambers, Churchgate, Mumbai. Shri S. Gurumurthy, Chartered Accountant addressed the gathering on India’s Transformation – Opportunities and Challenges.
Mr. Nitin P. Shingala commenced the event remembering Late Mr. Shailesh G. Kapadia, informing the audience about the Memorial Fund under whose auspices the new book “Securities Law – Relevant for Chartered Accountants” was launched. The book is authored by CA.Jayant Thakur. The book was inaugurated by the speaker Shri S. Gurumurthy.
Mr. Nitin Shingala, outgoing President, introduced the speaker as having an immense knowledge on the subject and that the speaker is an economist, a lawyer, professor and a columnist of great renown, over and above a Chartered Accountant.
Mr. Raman Jokhakar, Incoming President felicitated the speaker with a memento on behalf of the Society.
The speaker appreciated that Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society has kept the flame of ethical and moral values burning and is continuously working towards maintaining it.
He commenced his address with the words of Swami Vivekanand, stating how he won the hearts of so many Americans in Chicago at that time with just 470 words. Shri Gurumurthy moved the audience by stating his limitation in covering the vast subject in such a short time. He mentioned that accidents in life make a person and so is the case for him. In his discourse, he shared his journey of life and how various situations made him what he is today.
