Tera ghar jaante hain,
Chale aate hain daude,
Jo khush kismat hain thode,
Yeh har rahi ki manzil,
Yeh har kashti ka sahil…
To those who look upon the RRC as an annual pilgrimage – and there are many – these words apply as much to Shirdi Baba as they do to the RRC. ?
Of course, given that the third wave was still holding sway, the RRC – from Thursday, 24th February to Sunday, 27th February 2022 – was planned in hybrid mode – both physically and virtually. The expectation was that participants might prefer to wait out and not register during the early-bird phase (which normally happens); however, within a few days of the announcement, we had 100 plus registrations! Well, as the line goes, chale aate hain daude, jo khush kismat hain thode…
The venue was the newly opened Radisson Blu, Nashik. We had 110 participants who joined us physically at the venue and 43 who joined us virtually; the participants hailed from 22 cities across India at this 4-day conference.
The first day, post a sumptuous lunch with old friends and new acquaintances, the event was formally inaugurated with the traditional lighting of the lamp by the eminent Chief Guest, CA Dr. Vinayak Govilkar; the President, CA Abhay Mehta; the Vice President, CA Mihir Sheth; and the Chairman of the Seminar, Public Relation & Membership Development Committee, CA Narayan Pasari. The Chief Guest spoke lucidly on the highly engaging and pertinent topic of ‘Journey of Currency – from Barter to Bitcoin’.
The RRC was kick-started with the ice-breaking Presentation Paper on Practice Talks. The engaging trio of new generation practitioners, CA Anand Bathiya, CA Mayank Lakhani and CA Jeenendra Bhandari traversed all practical issues and aspects of modern-day practice. The audience was pulled into the conversation through the innovative use of technology which required them to answer questions by logging into a link created for the event. The answers to the poll questions were available for all to see and mull over – it gave the practitioners a quick fact check on where they stood as far as the others. CA Hitesh Gajaria ably chaired the talk.
Friday morning saw most participants getting into the coaches organised to take them for darshan at the Shirdi Sai Baba temple. Once back at the hotel, the group discussion (GD) on ‘Case Studies in Accounting, Auditing and Company Law’ began. The quartet of vibrant Group Leaders – CA Kaustubh Deshpande, CA Manoj Chandalia, CA Monica Challani and CA Ronak Rambhia ensured that the discussion among the participants – both physical and virtual – was fruitful and engaging.
GD-1 was followed up by a thought-provoking Paper Presentation on ‘Valuation of New Age Tech Companies’ by CA Ravishu Shah, chaired by Past President CA Deepak Shah. During the calendar year 2021, 63 companies had come out with an initial public offering (IPO) and raised around Rs 1.3 lakh crore from investors. The practical approach adopted by the speaker by discussing the recent IPOs and their valuations offered the attendees a good macro and micro insight on the topic, thus prompting some pertinent questions from the participants. The last session of the day was the presentation by a paper-writer, a veteran professional and Past President, CA Himanshu Kishnadwala, who enlightened the participants with solutions to the case studies discussed earlier by the various groups.
Saturday morning witnessed the participants dive into the brainstorming GD on ‘Case Studies on Direct Taxes’. Once again, the group leaders, CA Divya Jokhakar, CA E. Chaitanya, CA Kinjal Bhuta and CA R.Harishably steered the discussion on the case studies. This was followed by a thought-provoking session by CA Aseem Trivedi on the ‘Recent Issues on Disciplinary Cases and Code of Ethics’. The session of Ethics was intricately chaired by Past President CA Uday Sathaye. Critical aspects of recent ethical issues faced by Chartered Accountants were discussed. This was followed by the Direct Tax session ably chaired by our BCAS veteran and Past President, CA Anil Sathe. Advocate Devendra Jain, the paper writer, ably discussed each case study in an erudite manner.
The last session on Sunday morning, a Panel Discussion on the concept of ‘Related Party Transactions’ under various laws such as the Companies Act, Accounting Standards, Income Tax Act and the GST Law had the panelists CA Parind Mehta, CA Sonalee Godbole and CA Sudhir Soni, share their subject expertise on 11 case studies with the audience. The session was moderated by the BCAJ Editor and Past President, CA Raman Jokhakar. The participants found the panel discussion truly enriching as the discussion was focused on various practical issues faced by professionals.
The event concluded with Chairman CA Narayan Pasari acknowledging the tireless efforts of Convenors of Seminar, Public Relations & Membership Development Committee – CA Kinjal Bhuta, CA Manmohan Sharma, CA Mrinal Mehta and CA Preeti Cherian and thanking all those who worked towards delivering a successful RRC.
Till we gather next year under one umbrella, let’s pay an ode to our dear RRC with that evergreen number yet again…
Tareef teri nikli hai dil se,
Aayi hai lab pe, ban ke qawaali!
