A Happy and Joyous New Year to all of you! I wish each one of you good health, wealth and happiness in New Year 2022, but more importantly, I wish you the strength and wisdom to build them for yourself. Socrates once said, “The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old but on building the new”. I wish you all the best and may you find abundant success and contentment in all your endeavours. With your dedication and efforts, may we continue to rise and shine as a people and professional community in the prestigious task of nation building with our unique skills and abilities.

The world around us is changing with each passing day, as we work towards the new beginnings, learning new things, starting new businesses and striding ahead to achieve new goals to reach greater heights. It is a matter of immense pride to see the rise of India’s start-up ecosystem, as the third largest, globally. As a nation, driven by the power of youth and intellect, a new leadership is rising and building the culture of entrepreneurship, moving towards building Aatmanirbhar Bharat. To my mind, the roadmap to India’s growth story leading to world economic growth essentially runs through by nurturing the spirit of entrepreneurship, developing framework for the new age fin-tech companies and start-up culture to meet the aspirations of youth. Our profession, being the trusted advisor to the industry, is poised to play the pivotal role by adopting the constantly evolving technology and supporting entrepreneurs in building innovative business models. The future is reshaping now and we as professionals whose advice and decisions impact our economy must rise to these new changes and thrive in it.

As we are rebuilding the economy overcoming the ill economic effects of pandemic, we as professionals can wield our expertise with the unfolding new reforms and enhance the capacity of the financial sector. Our fraternity has the foremost functionality in ensuring the best decisive actions in enhancing the physical, financial and infrastructure pillars to harness the opportunities offered to the nation through the budget.

Every election is determined by the voters. Voting is not only our right, but also our power. It is one of the most potent instruments through which people democratically choose their leaders. Voting is an expression of the commitment to oneself and profession to elect leadership who would take the profession to new heights.

Elections to the 25th Central Council and 24th Regional Councils were held successfully on 3rd and 4th December 2021 across 832 notified polling booths. A total of 228 candidates, including 73 for Central Council and 155 for Regional Councils, have contested in the elections. The counting of the votes of the Central and Regional Councils commenced concurrently from 16th December 2021 at all respective Regions.

For the first time in this election, with amended rules, voters had the liberty to exercise their voting rights from ‘anywhere’ in the sense, a polling booth in the same/different city within the same constituency or a polling both in another city outside one’s own regional constituency. I am pleased to see that thousands of members have utilised this facility.

The results of these elections of ICAI have already been finalised and declared. Regardless of who wins, an election should be a time of optimism and fresh approaches, and it is always win for democracy. I extend a hearty welcome and my best wishes to the incoming members of the Council and Regional Councils.

I am happy to inform that coinciding with the 21st Annual India-Russia Summit, ICAI signed an MoU with the Institute of Professional Accountants of Russia (IPAR) on December 2, 2021 which is one of the 28 agreements signed between the two countries during the Summit.

The MoU aims to establish mutual cooperation in the areas of Professional Accountancy Training, Professional Ethics, Technical Research and Professional development of Accountants.

The event was graced by Dr. Aseem Vohra, First Secretary - Trade Wing, Embassy of India in Russia as Guest of Honour; myself and CA. (Dr.) Jai Kumar Batra, Secretary, ICAI from ICAI side. Mr. Gennadiy Ostrovskiy, Vice-President, IPAR, Russia and Ms. Evgeniya Koposova, Director IPAR, Russia attended the event for IPAR. Through this MoU, members of both the Institutions will gain an impetus for exchange, creating more opportunities for relationship building, policy making will be provided to Export of Services in Accountancy profession.

While I pen down this page, in yet another positive development, the Union Cabinet chaired by the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji has also approved Memorandum of Understanding between the ICAI and the Polish Chamber of Statutory Auditors (PIBR) on December 22, 2021. The aim of MoU is to work together to develop a mutually beneficial relationship for the members of ICAI and PIBR.

Continuing our growth abroad, we have inaugurated two more Representative Offices of ICAI at Sweden (Stockholm) and Denmark (Copenhagen) on 9th December 2021 at a virtual event organised by Netherlands (Amsterdam) Chapter of ICAI. With the launch of these new additional Representative Offices, ICAI has now increased its presence to 11 cities of Europe with 4 Chapters and 7 Representative Offices. In total, ICAI has increased its presence to 73 Global cities of the World with 44 Chapters and 29 Representative Offices spanning in 47 countries.

We congratulate CA. Prafulla P. Chhajed, Past President, ICAI who has been recently elected as Deputy President of Confederation of Asian and Pacific Accountants (CAPA) for a period of two years. It is a matter of pride and joy that ICAI has secured this coveted position after a gap of 6 years. Further, I also got the honour to serve The South Asian Federation of Accountants (SAFA) as Vice-President starting from January 1, 2022. This position also comes to ICAI after a period of 9 years. I am also happy to inform that the Chartered Accountants Worldwide (CAW) Board has approved the appointment of CA. (Dr.) Debashis Mitra, Vice President - ICAI as a NonFounder Director to the CAW Board for a two-year term. These positions are yet recognition and trust to the Indian accountancy profession, and it will further augment the position of the CA profession globally.

Preparations for the ICAI International Conference on the theme “Accountants Creating a Digital and Sustainable Economy” on January 21-22, 2022 at Jio World Centre, Mumbai are in full swing and we are working to create a valuable experience for our participants wishing to remain updated with the current issues and learnings from the crisis.

I urge my brethren to register in large numbers and encourage fellow members to be a part of this flagship event of ICAI and make it a successful and enriching experience.

I had the privilege to address the Indian CA fraternity at the World Expo in Dubai at an event organized by the Dubai Chapter of ICAI recently. It is always a pleasure to meet members of our fraternity, and especially on this favourable visit, with news of the oncoming World Congress of Accountants 2022 (WCOA 2022) which will be taking place from 18th to 21st in November, 2022. The WCOA, popularly known as the “Olympics of the Accountancy Profession” is one of the most prestigious global events of Professional accountants under the aegis of the International Federation of Accountants (IFAC), where a conglomeration of 6000 delegates from over 130 member countries of IFAC exchange views with other Accounting and Finance professionals from around the world and engage with visionaries and leaders to bring their own expertise to the fore on a world stage.

I look forward to participation from members and organizations to utilise this golden opportunity and make it a grand success for each one of us.

It gives me immense pleasure to welcome the newly qualified Chartered Accountants into the professional community. I am very optimistic that the newly qualified Chartered Accountants will be taking the profession to newer paths beyond the traditional avenues, as the profession aligns with the digital era. As said by Abraham Lincoln, ‘the best way to predict your future, is to create it”. I would take this opportunity to encourage the newly inducted Chartered Accountants to broaden their horizons and look for emerging avenues. India would be leading the next orbit of growth and I am confident that the profession would be the catalyst for Value Creation.

To felicitate and welcome the newly qualified Chartered Accountants into the professional community, the long awaited ICAI Convocation 2021-22 are being held at Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Indore, Jaipur and New Delhi during December 2021-January 2022 for members who are enrolled during the period from November 2019 to August 2021 and for Rank holders of CA Final Examination (July 2021).

On the 73rd Republic Day of our nation, I extend my heartiest greetings and recall the commemoration of our Constitution, and the spirit of resilience of our nation builders whose hard work has enabled us the Indians to act Independently to take charge of our destiny ahead.

May we all continue to strive forward and add to the glory of our beloved nation. As professionals, let us work towards driving our economy in the right direction in these evolving times and prove our mettle as always.

Stay safe, stay healthy. Best Wishes.