The Bengal Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Kolkata, India

Seminar on Technology Implications of IFRS Adoption, 13th June 2009, Chamber premises

The Information Technology Sub-Committee and the Finance and Banking Sub-Committee of the Bengal Chamber organized a very relevant and interesting Seminar on "Technology Implications of IFRS Adoption" from 10.00 a.m. to 2.00 p.m. on Saturday, 13th June 2009 in the Chamber premises.

The objective of the Seminar was to acquaint industry with the impact of IFRS adoption on IT systems and the processes used to accumulate and report financial information, modifications to business processes and controls supporting those processes. This was, in fact, the third seminar in a series of events focusing on adoption of International Financial Reporting Standards.

The seminar was addressed by leading lights in corporate finance and accounting from industry, and consultants. The Opening Session was addressed by Mr. P.R. Ramesh, National Director- Audit and Enterprise Risk Services, Deloitte Haskins and Sells. Mr. Ramesh spoke about IFRS conversion of accounting standards focusing on people, process and technology. Specifically, he covered process and statutory reporting, technology infrastructure and organizational issues. As part of technology considerations, he spoke about the significant areas in financial systems architecture that will be impacted (policies, procedures and controls; master reference data and source systems; general ledger; financials consolidation; period close and downstream reporting, information delivery). Upstream and downstream impacts like data requirements, analysis of changes and disclosures (upstream) and information and reporting accuracy, analytical flexibility, consolidation and consistency and rationalization (downstream) were also addressed at length.

This was followed by a presentation by Mr. Rajarshi Sengupta, Executive Director, Deloitte & Touche Consulting India Private Limited and Co-Chairperson, IT Sub-Committee, BCCI. Mr. Sengupta spoke about the overarching technology implications of IFRS. He focused on the issues related to truth & consequences of IFRS, the fact that IFRS was much more than only an accounting change, key system focus areas of IFRS and technology and the key system implementation considerations to IFRS conversion
. He spoke on a point of view structure, which focuses on the technology considerations of IFRS conversion, including a discussion on the system impacts, readiness of corporate ERPs, implementation considerations, risks, and shared his points of view on successful conversion. Mr. Sengupta spoke about systems architecture and ERP-solution specific considerations apart from handling multiple reporting requirements, time span for conversion, risks involved and even presented a case study on IFRS application development for sourcing data from legacy system. Mr. Saradindu Dutta, General Manager- Corporate Accounts, ITC Limited, thereafter, focused on IFRS - Corporate Roadmap highlighting systems changes, manual activities and change in sync with IT systems upgrade. He talked about IFRS conversion phases (assessing and planning conversion, learning and building tools and roll out). IT assessment and identifying impact areas, costs of IT changes and types of system changes along with integration issues at group, reporting unit level and source level were also covered. A panel discussion on Infrastructure and IFRS Conversion was also held as part of the seminar. Mr. Syamal Nayak, Partner, A.R. Das & Associates was the moderator. He was joined on the panel by Mr. Rajarshi Sengupta, Mr. Rahul Guha, Principal Solution Consultant, Financial Management Applications, Oracle India Pvt. Ltd and Mr. Sumil Vikamsey, SAP India Pvt. Ltd. The panelists focused on various strategic opportunities to upgrade IT systems, the challenges and considerations of IFRS and also discussed the transition to IFRS.

The event was attended by more than 90 delegates and concluded with an Open House Session..

Sunfeast Health and Lifestyle Quiz, 26th June 2009, Chamber premises

The 2nd Sunfeast Health & Lifestyle Quiz was organized by the Health Sub-Committee on Friday, 26th June 2009 from 5 p.m. in the Chamber premises. This was one key endeavour of the Chamber’s Health Sub-Committee to take forward its objective of "Health for All" and raise awareness on health issues. The Quiz was an unqualified success.

The Quiz was structured to offer infotainment of a high order. The Preliminary Round consisted of written questions and the top six teams qualified for the Finals. While the theme for the Quiz was ‘Health and Lifestyle’, the questions covered a wide spectrum of interest areas -- with each question having a health/lifestyle angle but not necessarily technically oriented to medical science/procedure. This quiz had a unique positioning of its own --- a little away from the more familiar general and business quizzes, which made it all the more interesting and enjoyable.

The Sunfeast Health and Lifestyle Quiz opened to a packed hall, with the participants and audience brimming with excitement and expectations. The teams were an interesting mix of doctors, health professionals and members from the corporate world.

The preliminary round consisted of written questions testing the teams' medical knowledge along with interesting connections to music, films, even cartoons. The questions ranged from elementary, to scientific, to brain-stormers. Six teams proceeded to the final, which consisted of highly witty buzzer rounds, slides and audio-visual questions. The teams came up with some spectacular answers, along with regular humorous interventions made by the quizmaster, making the event very interesting.

32 teams participated in the Quiz. The participating organizations included Acclaris Business Solutions Pvt Ltd, AMRI Hospitals, BSNL, CESC Ltd, Deloitte and Touche Consulting India Pvt. Ltd., Exide Industries Ltd, SBI Capital Markets, Tata Ryerson Ltd, Tata Projects Ltd and others.

The winners were Essqube, who won Return Tickets to Bangkok and many other prizes. The 1st and 2nd Runners up were Inmaniacs and Saturday Club. There were attractive prizes for all finalists and there were also audience prizes. Mr. Charanpreet Singh, the renowned Quiz Master, conducted the Quiz.

Interactive Seminar on HR Capacity Building in Infrastructure and High-End Manufacturing, 6th July 2009, Chamber premises

The HR Sub-Committee of the Bengal Chamber organized a very contemporary and interesting Interactive Seminar on HR Capacity Building in Infrastructure and High-End Manufacturing on the evening of 6th July in the Chamber premises.

The seminar was co-branded with Consulting Engineering Services (India) Pvt. Ltd., a premier organization in the field of multi-disciplinary engineering consultancy.

The keynote address was delivered by Prof. S S Chakraborty, Chairman-cum-Managing Director, Consulting Engineering Services (India) Private Limited.

Panelists from both academia and industry addressed the critical aspect of bridging the demand-supply gap in technical skill requirement for infrastructure and high-end manufacturing. The panelists included Prof. Sabyasachi Sengupta, Vice Chancellor, West Bengal University of Technology; Prof. Ajoy Kumar Ray, Vice Chancellor, Bengal Engineering and Science University, Sibpur; Mr. Gautam Chakrabarty, Senior General Manager – HR, Haldia Petrochemicals Limited; Mr. Sourav Daspatnaik, Director – HR & Strategy, Apeejay Group and Mr. Indranil Dasgupta, CEO, Bengal Integrated Auto Industrial Park Pvt. Ltd. The panel was chaired by Dr. N R Banerjea, Chairman, West Bengal Electronics Industry Development Corporation Limited (WEBEL).

The programme addressed the critical aspect of bridging the demand-supply gap in technical skill requirement for infrastructure and high-end manufacturing. The nation needs, more than ever, qualified engineers and technical personnel in its endeavour to embark on infrastructure and manufacturing led double-digit growth. To ensure this, there is a need for industry, academia and the Government to work together. The programme was organized keeping this objective in mind. The event was attended by senior HR practitioners, and members of the academia.

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