Kray-ah-teef Accounting!

Increase in assets debit it, Decrease in assets credit it. My brains used to explode with such obscure jargons and with a torpor mindset in my first accounting class as my accounting teacher took it as a standard that everyone knows the basics and he is just refreshing it. But later when I entered the world of finance and with developing interest, I  came to know the significance  of these accounting standards and their influence on the image of the company, the business as a whole and especially to shareholders who hold the business and  impart meaning to them.I was happy studying finance during my management days which inoculated knowledge within me but also exposed me to the dark side of it when I started learning the ways with how finance professionals do Window Dressing in balance sheets and P and L accounts which when caught became Frauds. Every intellect of finance while completing CA or CFA or MBA in finance gets a idea how to manipulate balance sheets and income statements to have a feel good effect on shareholders and market as well as they reveal your smartness to the top management.Since a better balance sheet and P and L account helps to show a stronger market position,helps to influence market share, reduce liability for taxation, hide liquidity problems, ward take off bids,satisfy the demand of major investors and thus window dressing later was better known as creative accounting.

The Satyam fraud which happened during my management days made a deep impact on my mind. The reason was Satyam visited my campus last year and I was on verge of getting selected .Well the surprise was ,the HR lady was a banking head and was so much gaga about the company.The friends who later joined satyam, what really  happened to them is of  no use to discuss here but what is more important is Satyam ended with 5361 crore as inflated cash, which in reality was 5040 crores.The accrued interest of 376 crore,liability of 1230 crore, overstated debtors position and even operating margin of approx 590 crore diff with the actual. The Satyam case retreated the need of International Financial Reporting Standards in India where ENRON made the reason to have proper financial reporting standards in countries like US as well. Enron reported to have 100 billion dollars of revenue where Arthur Andersen did amazing creative accounting ways to show ENRON as a blue chip company and the company misused the shareholders hard earned money in various ways.While Kenneth lay had paid the price , Ramalinga Raju survived the loopholes of Indian standards of dealing such cases.


IFRS is basically International Financial Reporting Standards issued by International Accounts Standard board(IASB). 100 countries have implemented IFRS and are coordinating with them and IASB is a 14 member board from nine countries which decide the Standards. The accounting standards have been built because there are differences in US GAAP and Indian GAAP as well as accounting standards followed in different countries.

Small and Medium companies in India are still not prepared for IFRS.The IFRS is a costly exercise which includes an overhaul of operational and IT processes apart from training cost. The government had hinted for preparing a watered version of IFRS.The ICAI has indicated that all entities having excess of 1000 crore will implement IFRS.

I was amazed when during my session at IIM Calcutta one of the finance head of a leading Multinationals told me the difference in auditing standards of Price water coopers and KPMG. Probably with implementation of IFRS the base would be built for better and transparent accountancy. The day is near when innocent shareholders will not be mesmerized with wrong data and rising figures as there would not be any space for creative accounting but rather will reveal the real health of company and its standard.Lets Hope industry developing ethical standards with such transparent methods,the day is not far when implementation of these would be read as case studies in management classes rather than ENRON and SATYAM fraud cases.

Jai ho!

The Tiger weeps in dark!

Is Indian system full of prodigious hatred and humdrum nature where every task seems quotidian.Well  I know many would tend to term me the Philosopher of The black Idealogy where am not still satisfied with increasing growth rate, a good number of Multinational companies coming to India every year and Leaping sensex every day and if we all hear swami ji of the Times of India , the tiger is gonna take a  step ahead against the dragon in years to come, but alas since I am a critic and will always speak from the brain and not from the heart and the reality is we are still not prepared for the colossal growth which will turn India to be the hub of Knowledge,Technology and Power and finally being The Vishwaguru , the leader, the visionary and the Pathfinder, which  our ancestors and fellow economists have dreamt in past.

The way Companies and firms run in India is disastrous , where goals and strategy is not set by calculative and systematic approach but 50 percent on market sentiments and 50 percent by peer pressure of the senior management.I would certainly love to ask how many companies in real sense do real forecasting, analysis and anticipate  the market conditions and prepare themselves beforehand.I would say its sheer Indias strong internal economy and buying power that saved the economy from recession last year. Its like crossing the barrier for Business Analysis team who are damn good experts in excel and making graphs where the results are amazingly subjective and not practical. What has made Microsoft amazingly so innovative or GE the most well organized companies of the world is their way of approach which we Indians have never learnt.I hope Reliance acquiring Lynodell Basell would bring a change in Indian ideaology and they will be more effective in decision making and calculative in their approach as if not ,they will certainly die,facing stiff competition from the International players who are more intelligent,  more research oriented and effectively closer to real results. The exception to the fact is Malvinder Mohan Singhs shrewdness  in making Daiichi overvalue Ranbaxy where he knew very well the real time to sell Ranbaxy as unlike most Indian busineesmen who tend to be too much emotionally attached with the business and this approach has been a change in Indias new business perspective which everyone needs to learn.But there are not many like the Ranbxy chief.

The major factor for attraction for a MNC company in India  is  rising population which is well educated well trained and have spending power. While the gap between the rich and poor is increasing day by day, where the rich becomes richer and poor more poorer, India still remains the apple of the eye for the investors.While the FDI flows have increased every year, most of the part of FDI was not stagnant due to the frequent changes in the market.

The Indian society still suffers from many diseases. The thought process is still me instead of we.

Every Indian suffers from the mental disease of competition and not being united when it comes to term like growth and developing India as a whole. India by luck I should term it luck as there was no strategy involved, became a investors hub but India still does not know how to use  the growth for more avenues  and rising FDI inflows for infrastructure development. The government approach has been slow and even if Congress and BJP both have given a positive support to liberalization making India a perfect competitive market in long run have not shown results intended in the long run.

Narendra Modi and Nitish in Bihar have not got the media hype for making the resources in use for making India proud, Indian mentality has never came out from caste culture and creed. I am sorry to say that even a average literate man knows nothing about Inflation, interest rates, foreign policies of current Govt as he accepts the way things come to him and take the voting day as holiday.

The situation becomes poor when Companies also suffer from existing rules and process. Things become more complicated when they try working in microeconomic situations where the strategies are for macroeconomic ones where every Indian state and locality is a nation in itself with its own idealogy.

Indian Government and the bureaucracy has been the main reason of slowness of momentum of growth. India could have achieved the desired but have not used the opportunities and always bounded itself in restrictions. The time has come for government and people to understand that a double digit figure of growth will never make India Proud. The objective should also be to increase per Capita Income, increase in Gross National Income based on Purchasing power parity (PPP)  and development of rural India, with better foreign policies and Infrastructure because when the Tiger will roar, it will make the Jungle hear its voice!