Managing Director of Lokmat Media Group, Devendra Darda speaking at the inaugural session of national convention of CA students on Monday.
Nagpur: “Chartered Accountants are backbone of corporate India, because no business decision right from investment to project implementation to business running to compliance tax laws can be taken without consulting them. Advice of CAs results in creating jobs and also tax revenue for a nation, and thus CAs also act as “nation builders,” said the Managing Director of Lokmat Media Group, Devendra Darda here on Monday.
He was speaking as a chief guest after inaugurating the two-day national convention of CA students, organised by Western India CA Students Association (WICASA) under the aegis of Nagpur branch of Institute of Chartered Accountants of India at J R Shaw Auditorium here.
Describing the importance of ethics in CA’s profession, Darda also said that CAs should learn to say ‘no’, when asked to do unethical or illegal things. “Only because CAs failed to say “no” to unethical accounting practices, largest corporate fraud in India occurred at Satyam Computers and ultimately lakhs of common people i.e. shareholders lost their money.”
Exhorting students to be persistent in pursuing CA course, Darda said that students should not be disheartened by the reality that only 10-12 per cent clear CA examination. Darda also said that merely holding a degree is not the only pre-requisite for getting a job but knowledge and experience also can land you a job. So there are lot many opportunities for remaining 88-90 per cent students, who can not clear CA examination,” he pointed out. He also complimented the students for opting the CA despite it being a challenge to clear the examination
Appreciating the theme of convention, ‘Unfold Your Wings’, Darda also asked the CA students to ‘widen their horizons and develop soft skills like speaking fluent English, because it is the language of global business and also learn to dress according to the requirement of the profession.
The vice-president of Board of Studies of ICAI, Nilesh Vikamsey, in his speech said that CA course was the best course in the world as it was multi-disciplinary course offering academic knowledge to practical training for three years. He also asked students to remove doubts of failing at the CA examination and instead nurture perseverance to succeed. Shun the common belief that ‘CA’ stands for “Come Again” and abandon the addiction of Smart Phone while studying,” Vikamsey also told the students.
Past president of ICAI, Uttamprakash Agrawal also spoke on the occasion.
At the outset, the chairperson of Nagpur branch of ICAI, Ms Kirti Agrawal made a welcome speech and coordinator of students activities and Western Council member, Julfesh Shah, WICASA coordinator, Suren Duragkar exhorted students about passing the CA examination.
WICASA chairman, Hardik Shah, past chairman Swapnil Agrawal, WICASA coordinator, Sandip Jotwani, CA students Shivani Sarda, Yogesh Amlani, were seated on the dais.
Treasurer of Western India Council of ICAI, Subodh Kedia, had specially flown in from Ahmedabad to attend the event. The convention which will continue tomorrow also is being attended by 700 CA students from all across India.
Ms Fatehpuria and Yash Budhwani conducted the proceedings and Sandip Jotwani proposed a vote of thanks. Explaining how persistence pays, Darda also recalled an incident at the beginning of his career. ” In the year 2000, as a Product Development Manager for a small IT firm, in Silicon Valley, I was assigned the job of roping in Dell Corporation for company’s product named Remote Network Operating Centre. I tried to meet Dell CEO for three months and failed. So my boss was pestering me to abandon the attempt, but I decided to try once more.
I drafted a two paragraph e-mail and decided to sent it directly to Dell Corp’s chief, Michael Dell. I did not have his e-mail id, so I composed various permutations and combination of his possible e-mail id and clicked the send button. Within a week Dell CEO called me and we soon finalized a 20 million dollar deal,” Darda said invoking a standing ovation from the audience.
