The 75th Annual General Meeting of the BCAS was held on Saturday, 6th July, 2024 at ITC Grand Central Hotel, Ballroom Ground Floor, 287, Dr Baba Saheb Ambedkar Rd, Parel, Mumbai – 400012.
The President, Mr. Chirag Doshi took the chair and called the meeting to order. All the business as per the agenda contained in the notice was conducted, including the adoption of accounts and appointment of auditors.
Mr. Mandar Telang, Hon. Joint Secretary, announced the results of the election of the President, the Vice-President, two Honorary Secretaries, the Treasurer and eight members of the Managing Committee for the year 2024–25.
The following members were elected unopposed for the year 2024–25:
Dr CA Mayur Nayak, Editor of the BCAJ, announced the ‘Jal Erach Dastur Awards’ for the Best Article and Best Feature appearing in the BCA Journal during the year 2023–24. The ‘Best Article Award’ was awarded to CA Bhavya Gandhi & CA Naresh Ajwani, for their article ‘Liberalised Remittance Scheme — How Liberal it is? (An Overview and the Recent Amendments’. The ‘Best Feature Award’ went to CA Jagdish Punjabi, Adv. Aditya Bhatt & Adv. Devendra Jain for ‘Tribunal News Part A — Domestic Taxation’. The Editor then announced the ‘S V Ghatalia Foundation Award’ for the ‘Best Article on Audit’. The award went to CA P R Ramesh for the article ‘Future Audit: The Transformation Agenda’.
Before the conclusion of the AGM, members, including Past Presidents of the BCAS, were invited to share their views about the Society.
The July 2024 special issue of the BCA Journal on Bharat and BCAS — The March towards a Centenary was released by the Chief Guest – Padma Bhushan Shri K.V. Kamath.
At the end of the formal AGM proceedings, the 76th Founding Day Lecture was delivered to a packed auditorium. Members and attendees benefitted from the astute deliberation on Viksit Bharat – Role of Accounting and Finance Professionals by Padma Bhushan Shri K.V. Kamath. The meeting formally concluded with CA Kinjal Shah thanking the speaker for sharing his visionary thoughts on a relevant topic with the attendees.
[The video of the lecture can be accessed on the BCAS YouTube Channel, and a Report on the Founding Day lecture is provided in the ‘Society News’ section of this journal.]
OUTGOING PRESIDENT’S SPEECH
Chirag Doshi- “As we celebrate the momentous occasion of the 75th anniversary of the Bombay Chartered Accountants Society (BCAS), we reflect on a rich legacy of excellence, integrity, and innovation. Over these seven and a half decades, BCAS has consistently strived to uphold the highest standards in the profession, fostering a community that values continuous learning and ethical practice. This year, we take pride in commemorating our journey, marked by significant milestones and transformative contributions to the field of chartered accountancy.
5-year plan
Starting this year, the BCAS Managing Committee has initiated the presentation of a comprehensive 5-year plan for the Society. This strategic plan aims to enhance the Society’s reach, foster professional development among its members, provide ample networking opportunities, advocate for important causes, empower the youth through Yuva Shakti initiatives, and drive impactful change through the Chartered for Change program. This endeavour marks a significant step forward in shaping the future trajectory of BCAS and its contributions to the accounting profession.
New initiatives
1. Reach — Social media, Print media, hoarding, new paper ads, outstation meetings. MODI letters, invitees to various meetings before the budget, C&AG, Dubai branch, Abu Dhabi branch, Rakeez authorities, AAA association, MSME panel, jointly with IMC maximum events, BIA felicitation.
2. Professional development — Adaan Pradhan 75 mentees in a year, CAMBA, various Seminars on technology, International webinars, Seminar on FIAS standards, 75 hours duration course on Accounting and Auditing, Professional accountancy courses, International Women’s Day Celebrations – ‘Present Positive = Future Ready’, Full Day Workshop — Use of Technology in GST Compliance
3. Networking — BCAS engage platform, Pan India Networking events for members, RRC and other events had networking focus initiatives, NFC cards at reimagine
4. Advocacy / Research and publications – 1. KYC 2. IND AS 3. Representation to charity commissioners 4. 75 Laws Relevant to Direct Taxes
5. Yuva Shakti – Tarang, JhanCAr was back with a bang and maximum participation, CAMBA, Digital branding seminar, BCAS youth WhatsApp group
6. CA for Change — Digitalisation of schools, science labs, computer labs, BCAS Van.
Various other events: More than 75 events in one year were organized including Lecture Meetings on current topics, webinars, outstation meetings, RRCs, NRRC, student events, study circle meetings, workshops, seminars and non-technical sessions and events
Reimagine – The 75th year ……..
Journey of Re-Imagine: Started in February 2023, when 2 committees were formed the technical committee led by Past presidents — Shariq Contractor, Anil Sathe, Abhay Mehta and the celebrations committee led by Pranay Marfatia, Uday Sathaye and Narayan Pasari. I remember attending my first president’s meeting (many call them mothers-in-law, I call them my biggest supporters and guides), there were big thoughts and expectations in the eyes of each of the Presidents. Despite the big responsibilities they had put on my shoulders, they also had kept their both hands on my head. Post that I spoke to my OB team about the big bash in the year we can achieve and only one common word came we can and let’s go for it. The youth Managing Committee was all geared up to take their part in responsibilities and never even once hesitated for the task allocated to them. I just loved the power, enthusiasm and kuch kar gujarne ki chahat of this young and vibrant Office Bearers Team and Managing committee.
It was not as easy as it looked, 12 topics with no tax clauses, no case studies, no Accounting standards, no Auditing Standards, chosen by each committee of BCAS and the Technical team. 50+ Stalwarts Speakers 3 Padma accolades, 7 CFOs, 2 International Speakers, 2 Media Anchors, 5 Founders, several senior professionals, lawyers, capital market regulators and players, MBAs, bankers and venture capitalists, top-notch moderators and many more.
Friends, it was not as easy as it looked and was made by the celebration committee, opening ceremony, organising and arrangement for sponsors, souvenirs, managing seamless registration of 1200 professionals, 3 lunches, 2 dinners, family registrations, kits, speakers travel to stay and all other arrangements were so seamless.
It was not as easy as it looked, communications, pre-meetings, lounge interviews and engagement, use of technology like pigeon hole, the seamless sound and light support, graphics and timely changing of slides, adhering to minute-to-minute planning, social media push, 21+ journalists and 41+ media covering the event, no cancellation or delay of speakers.
Friends, it was the achievement of a miracle with the complete dedication of all of us together.The famous dialogue comes to my mind, Jab tum kisi cheez ko dil se chahete ho to sari kyanat tumara saath deti hai.
Thanking everyone,
First and foremost, I sincerely thank the Past Presidents, whose invaluable guidance and support have been instrumental to my effective functioning. I express my deepest appreciation to my Office Bearer colleagues for their unwavering support and active involvement in our planned activities. I am profoundly grateful to all the Managing Committee members, Trustees of the BCAS Foundation, Chairmen (Manish bhai, Abhay bhai, Nitin bhai, Deepak bhai, Sunil bhai, Rajesh bhai, Mayurbhai, Udaybhai, Ameet bhai, Mihir bhai and Co-Chairmen of the committees Anil bhai, Chetan bhai, Raman bhai, Nandita ben and Anand Kothari), convenors, coordinators, YUVA Shakti, students forum and core group members and the entire team of BCAS for their steadfast support across various initiatives. My special thanks to Nileshbhai Vikamsey, Raj Mullick, Manish Sampat, Sudhir Soni, Anil Desai, Anand Vashi, Rajaramji, Purvi Malani, Gautam Nayak and Gautam Shah for their support during Re-Imagine.
I also extend my heartfelt thanks to our Members, Subscribers, Speakers, Students, Social Media followers, Staff, Vendors, Donors, Sponsors, Printers of our publications, Service providers, Statutory and Internal auditors, Consultants, and Office Bearers of various sister organisations, Contributors to the journal, all of whom who have wholeheartedly supported our initiatives throughout the year. The success of our Society is a testament to your faith and patronage. At this moment I would like to thank my grandmother whom we lost this year at the age of 99, my father and my mother, my ever-supportive wife Khushboo and my all-time problem solver, my daughter Jhalak.
As we move forward, our focus must remain sharply attuned to understanding the evolving times and the needs of our members. I am confident that the newly elected President Anand Bathiya and his team of Office Bearers, the Managing Committee, and the Core Group will continue to uphold and advance the vision of the Society, further enhancing its legacy. I wish them every success in the coming year.
Jai hind! Jai BCAS!”
INCOMING PRESIDENT’S SPEECH
CA ANAND BATHIYA—
Excerpts from the address of the Incoming President (Scan here to watch the full video).
Youtube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rzW4eqHlIcY&t=1525s
“Good evening and a very warm welcome to this momentous and historical 75th AGM of our beloved Society.
A. Context
75 years is a very big milestone in the lifetime of an organization. The mere fact that an organization ‘survives’ for such a long period is in itself an exception, forget being a thriving, growing and vibrant organization like BCAS.
BCAS today is not just an organization but an Institution, an Institution that has stood the test of time and delivered on its promise exceedingly well.
It is a curious case of how a handful group of people who used to meet on Wednesdays today snowballed into a mammoth organization with members spread across 350+ towns and cities in India. With no regulatory powers, and no mandatory learning hours support, how is it that thousands of professionals each year look up to an organization as an epitome of Professional Development? The journey of BCAS is a textbook case study on Institution Building that outlives generations and continues to operates for its cause.
At this cusp of 75 years, we are celebrating durability, we are celebrating continuity, we are celebrating adaptability, and we are celebrating Longevity. It would be only right for us to reflect on what have been the real ingredients that shaped BCAS longevity as we see it today. What have been the differentiators that gave BCAS this longevity?
In these characteristics might also lie the answers to our future.
As I pondered through my journey at BCAS, first as an observer, then as a member, then as a Core Group Member and as an Office Bearer, I credit this longevity of BCAS to three distinct themes:
1. Selfless Volunteerism — Swayam Sevak
– High-quality volunteers working shoulder to shoulder for a greater purpose. The organization has somehow institutionalised the process of filtering committed volunteers, motivating, grooming and taking them up the ladder.
– When high-quality volunteers work with a ‘Seva’ mindset, it creates wonders.
– Volunteer-led selfless service of Seva has translated into Strong Successive Leadership that keeps the flag high.
– It is this combination of Swayam and Seva that has created the right Sanskaar at BCAS.
2. Staying relevant& building capabilities–Saksham
– There is constant urge in the collective consciousness at BCAS, to stay relevant and build capabilities.
– Be it around professional development challenges, having younger members, adopting technology or any such contemporary challenge.
– BCAS has over the years remained relevant and adapted to changing times.
– That organizational consciousness and alertness have held us high — The Sanskrit Subhashitam that we hold in our emblem – Na Bhaya Chasti Jagrata, is a reflection of this spirit. The one who is conscious and alert, need not fear.
3. Staying Focused & purposeful —Seem it
– Single-mindedness of purpose, remaining apolitical and not spreading ourselves too thin.
– At BCAS we realise our limitations as well, which is very important.
– It is unconventional but very deep to:
- Opt for Stability over Growth.
- Opt for Values over Value.
- Opt for Commitment over Competence.
- Opt for Depth over Breath.
– Sometimes being Best is more important than being Big.
These three pillars of Swayam, Saksham and Seem it have become our Swabhaavat BCAS.
We are built not for a sprint, but for a long marathon and better still a relay marathon. This has been our character; this has been our Swabhaav and it is this Swabhaav of BCAS that has allowed us to witness this beautiful day today.
It is from our Swabhaav that our Strengths and Weaknesses emerge, and it is in our Swabhaav that our Challenges and Opportunities lie.
B. My Journey at BCAS
Though my formal tryst with BCAS started as a Core Group member exactly 10 years before in 2014, my first engagement with BCAS started in 2011 when I was invited to speak at a session on IFRS in the year 2011. I distinctly remember, that I had my ICAI convocation on the same day, and a young convenor of the Accounting & Auditing Committee in the form of Manish Sampat called me to take up this session. We spoke and for whatever reason I chose to speak at the BCAS session and gave a pass to my convocation. And I jokingly tell people that I got convocated at BCAS.
The journey then continued with Power Summitsto then being again invited to present the first paper at the first Youth RRC held in 2013. This was the place where we made lots of friends Chirag, Kinjal, Mandar, Rutvik, Mahesh, Shreyas and many more who are now a part of the Managing Committee or Office Bearer pools.
It was in 2014 that Naushadbhai Panjwani inducted me to the Membership and Public Relations committee and I became a close on-looker to the inner functioning of the BCAS subsequently spending more time with the Corporate and Allied Laws Committee.
All through these 10 years, it’s been a journey of immense learning and realization both professionally as well as personally. Each passing day, month and year has been an occasion of tremendous learning and extreme satisfaction.
My father used to narrate a very nice story of 3 masons/construction workers. These 3 masons were working at a construction site. A passer-by comes and asks one mason,“Brother what are you doing?” The first mason replies, “I am laying a brick.” The passer-by walks on and asks the other mason, “Brother what are you doing?” The second mason replies, “I am making a wall”. The passer-by walks on and asks the third mason, “Brother what are you doing?” The third mason replies, that “I am making a temple”.
Throughout these 10 years, travelling through committees we had the privilege to pass through these stages where we visualised ourselves as ‘laying a brick’, to ‘building a wall’ and over the last year understanding the ‘Temple that we are building and supporting’ consciously or unconsciously.
So much so that over the last fortnight, me and Zubinbhai have had the privilege to attend 10 Committee meetings and those really opened up our understanding of the strength of BCAS and the Core Group. Imagine each of the chairpersons (who are much senior and much-established professionals) before they start the meeting, requested the President to provide ‘guidance’ on the year forward. To us, it was a lesson in humility and organization building.
When I was young, in our colony during Janmashtami, we had the Dahi-Handi festivities. I would be 9–10 years of age and they decided to make me the symbolic Krishna and decked me up with the robes, head gears etc. The seniors in the colony painstakingly made human pyramids, fell a few times but yet got up and finally when it was settled, popped me up to break the Dahi Handi. On that day I felt so much joy, so much sense of achievement that it was me and everyone clapped for me.
Today is a similar day, whilst I may have the symbolic pleasure of being appointed as the President, it is sitting on the strong shoulders of multiple past presidents and core group volunteers who have held the pyramid and laid the foundation.
It is completely to their wisdom, judgment and vision that we stand here today and I really hope and pray that we can make our community proud and live up to the high expectations.
C. Team and Plan for 2024–25
As they say, sitting on the shoulders of giants, we can see how far, we will use this occasion to move further in the coming year with our agenda of Professional Development. Fresh on the back of a very successful 75th year, we will further enhance the momentum that we gained in the last year.
In a voluntary setup like BCAS, there is no task that is easy ‘without’ the support of the Team and there is no task that is difficult ‘with’ the support of the Team. Over the last 45 days, we have worked towards assembling a committed Team that will enable realizing plans for the coming year.
In Zubin Billimoria, we have a formidable Vice President who brings decades of experience to the table, unmatched commitment and attention to detail.
In Kinjal Shah and Mandar Telang, we have a combination of strong capabilities and technological prowess to navigate us further. And now with the welcome addition of Kinjal Bhuta to the Office Bearers team, we have a very well-balanced Office Bearersteam with high execution capabilities.
Happy to share that we perhaps have an all-time young Office Bearers team, with an average age of 43 years, significantly down from the average age of 54 years just 5 years before.
The Managing Committee is our altar of governance as well as our reservoir of future leaders. It is this managing committee that is going to lead our Society through the glorious years of Amrit Kaal. We have consciously opted for continuity and this young team has gotten younger with the addition of Prajit Gandhi, who holds a lot of promise. The average age of MC today stands at 42 years, again down from 49 years 5 years before.
This year we had a lot of churnat chairmanship for 10 committees at BCAS. One of the years when we effectuated changes to chairmanship in 5 out of 10 committees. In another, we have a non-past president as a co-chairman in a Technical Committee as Rutvik Shanghvi takes the position of Co-Chairmanship of the very important International Tax Committee.
With many new additions to the Core Group as well, I remain confident of being in pole position to set sail into the Amrit Kaal for BCAS.
Last year we decided to move away from an Annual Thematic Plan to a 5-Year Strategic Plan. We plan to accelerate on the tenants of that 5-Year Strategic Plan and build on the back of the success we experienced last year. As we move forward on our 6-point Hexagonal Plan, we will amplify our impact by:
1. Putting in the rigours of Execution: Ideas are only as good as our execution abilities, and we plan to bring the rigours of effective execution through this dedicated team of volunteers.
2. Harnessing Technology to the maximum: This is one thing that we have been working on for the past few years and we now have a reasonably equipped tech stack. We plan to further build on this to ease the challenges of execution and enhance our member experience.
Amongst the Key Projects that we will focus on include:
1. Mount 11,000 — A membership enhancement and reach project.
2. BCAS Academy — Implementing a self-paced learning digital infrastructure.
3. Sherpa Project — Complete the appointment of 75 sherpas across 75 towns \ cities in India.
4. Collaborations — Research and Industry collaborations.
5. BCAS Studio — Building in-house audio\visual capabilities.
6. BCAS Podcasts — New way of consuming content.
7. BCAS BroadCASt — Member communication initiative.
8. Membership Formats — Evaluate different membership formats, timings, nature, etc.
9. Member Townhalls — Regular engagements, orientations and inductions.
10. Digital Certifications & Tech Enablement — WhatsApp Chatbot, digital badge and certification
Whilst we will do a few Different Things, we will do a lot of things Differently. Realizing the need for continuity in some of these initiatives, the capabilities at the back office have also been strengthened.
D. Conclusion
In no uncertain words, I would like to express my deepest gratitude and thanks
(i) to the BCAS members, Core Group, Past Presidents and the Managing Committee members for expressing their faith in me,
(ii) to my parents, who are here today for always being a guiding light in my personal and professional journey,
(iii) to my life partner and backbone Silky, who has graciously agreed to share me for one more year as I embark upon this journey,
(iv) to my younger brothers Janak and Haseet for the rock-solid support they offer, both at home and at the office.
With these words, the blessing of the almighty and seniors, love and support of friends and family, I humbly bow down with great humility as I accept this prestigious responsibility as the 76th President of Bombay Chartered Accountants’ Society. Thank you once again”.
