‘My mission is to make ICAI world’s top CMA institute’
5 Sept 2014 5:23 AM IST
What has been your career journey so far? Where have you worked before and what have been the ups and downs of it?
Finance has been my forte all through my life. With over 37 years’ experience in Financial Management and Cost Management in variety of industries which includes financial advisory services, strategies and business development for small and medium industries and providing cost management systems and MIS systems for large number of units. I worked in different capacities for 10 years and later turned to entrepreneurship in 1987.
The journey with the institute has been for nearly 30 years now. I entered in the year 1985 and next year I will be completing 30 years. I have been associated with the Hyderabad Chapter in different capacities and then elected to Southern Regional Council and as the Chairman of SIRC during the year 2000. I was elected to the Central Council in 2004 and has been with the council since then. There are lots of challenges currently facing the profession and I am confident that with the support of my colleagues and our members, will be able to wither all challenges.
What is your vision as ICAI President?
My vision for the institute is that we should be the number one CMA institute in the world. Looking at the vast resources available and the young generation in India it won’t take us much time to achieve this goal. My vision is to set same standards and competencies which any other country has for the cost and management accountants, I visualise the same and see that we should be at the top of the world. My goal is to draw a roadmap to ensure the necessary competencies are built amongst the young members.
How do you propose to train Indian Cost Accountants according to the global environment as financial standards are evolving?
The CMA profession is unique as it draws from global best practices in financial and management accounting aspects and retunes them according to the Indian environment taking into account the domestic concerns. Apart from strengthening the Indian CMA’s on financial reporting standards the impact of these benchmarks into performance reporting is an area our institute is looking at. It is also well integrated into the cost accounting standards which are evolved by the institute.
ICAI is holding capacity building training programmes through class room trainings, seminars, webinars and conferences. In addition, special projects such as CMA Labs, which is planned, give focused hands-on-training on the four pillars of the CMA syllabus which are finance, reporting, regulatory and strategy.
How do you see the Companies Act? How does the new law seek to improve corporate governance?
The Companies Act, 2013 has evolved from a major metamorphosis which prepares the corporate world with a futuristic outlook on the tenets of accountability, fairness, transparency and disclosures. The onus on corporate governance is also put on the shoulder of the independent directors, audit committees, auditors and KMP’s in order to boost the investors’ and other stakeholder confidence, at the same time, ensuring proper and ethical governance of the corporate world. My personal feeling is that any new legislation like the new act, which has departed from the past to a major extent, requires to be tested over a reasonable period of trial period before getting implemented.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring Cost Accountants?
In this globalised world, organisations require professionals who have specialised knowledge on business strategy and value creation. The Cost and Management Accounting being the foundation on which the enterprises are built, the specialised education and training the institute provides should make them perfectly fit the requirement. The current business environment requires not only strong foundation in Cost and Management Accounting, but also on using the IT capabilities to deliver faster and online information based on best CMA practices. The motto of our institute is, ‘Behind every successful business decision there is always a CMA,’ this should be the fulcrum on which the aspiring cost accountants should weave their career.
Finance has been my forte all through my life. With over 37 years’ experience in Financial Management and Cost Management in variety of industries which includes financial advisory services, strategies and business development for small and medium industries and providing cost management systems and MIS systems for large number of units. I worked in different capacities for 10 years and later turned to entrepreneurship in 1987.
The journey with the institute has been for nearly 30 years now. I entered in the year 1985 and next year I will be completing 30 years. I have been associated with the Hyderabad Chapter in different capacities and then elected to Southern Regional Council and as the Chairman of SIRC during the year 2000. I was elected to the Central Council in 2004 and has been with the council since then. There are lots of challenges currently facing the profession and I am confident that with the support of my colleagues and our members, will be able to wither all challenges.
What is your vision as ICAI President?
My vision for the institute is that we should be the number one CMA institute in the world. Looking at the vast resources available and the young generation in India it won’t take us much time to achieve this goal. My vision is to set same standards and competencies which any other country has for the cost and management accountants, I visualise the same and see that we should be at the top of the world. My goal is to draw a roadmap to ensure the necessary competencies are built amongst the young members.
How do you propose to train Indian Cost Accountants according to the global environment as financial standards are evolving?
The CMA profession is unique as it draws from global best practices in financial and management accounting aspects and retunes them according to the Indian environment taking into account the domestic concerns. Apart from strengthening the Indian CMA’s on financial reporting standards the impact of these benchmarks into performance reporting is an area our institute is looking at. It is also well integrated into the cost accounting standards which are evolved by the institute.
ICAI is holding capacity building training programmes through class room trainings, seminars, webinars and conferences. In addition, special projects such as CMA Labs, which is planned, give focused hands-on-training on the four pillars of the CMA syllabus which are finance, reporting, regulatory and strategy.
How do you see the Companies Act? How does the new law seek to improve corporate governance?
The Companies Act, 2013 has evolved from a major metamorphosis which prepares the corporate world with a futuristic outlook on the tenets of accountability, fairness, transparency and disclosures. The onus on corporate governance is also put on the shoulder of the independent directors, audit committees, auditors and KMP’s in order to boost the investors’ and other stakeholder confidence, at the same time, ensuring proper and ethical governance of the corporate world. My personal feeling is that any new legislation like the new act, which has departed from the past to a major extent, requires to be tested over a reasonable period of trial period before getting implemented.
Any words of wisdom for aspiring Cost Accountants?
In this globalised world, organisations require professionals who have specialised knowledge on business strategy and value creation. The Cost and Management Accounting being the foundation on which the enterprises are built, the specialised education and training the institute provides should make them perfectly fit the requirement. The current business environment requires not only strong foundation in Cost and Management Accounting, but also on using the IT capabilities to deliver faster and online information based on best CMA practices. The motto of our institute is, ‘Behind every successful business decision there is always a CMA,’ this should be the fulcrum on which the aspiring cost accountants should weave their career.
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