President Speech

NAMASKAR!

Till this day, I was a Son, husband, papa, dost, bhai, chacha and mama but for the next 365 days, I got a new identity that’s President of ACAE. Thank You for this new identity.

Today, on this important day, I would like to acknowledge them because of whom I am standing here today:

Firstly, I express my sincere gratitude to BHAGWAAN, (Bh se Bhoomi, Ag se Agni, W se Wayu, Aa se Aakash, N se Neer), The SARVASHAKTIMAAN who made of these five elements and made us with these elements, that is why we say, “Sab mai BHAGWAAN baste hai!”. I see HIM in everyone of you, and through you I want to express my utmost gratitude to HIM.

Second, to our Past Presidents who laid the foundation of this great association ACAE and have shaped it into what it is today with sincere efforts and perseverance. Our Past Presidents are the epitome of dedication and resilience. If you really want to know them better, please refer to our coffee table book, which has covered their journey of 65 years. Their positive aura and vision are commendable. Hats off to them. Out of 65, we are blessed with the supportive presence of 33 Past Presidents.

I am grateful to the Past Presidents for entrusting me with this opportunity.

Office Bearers, Executive Committee, Sub -C ommittee and Members are the pillars of ACAE. I thank them for elevating me to this position and for confiding in me.

The entire back office of ACAE is led by Niti Dasgupta and others for their never ending support.

I would like to give credit to the organization DTPA and other organizations / study circles that brought forward the leader in me. I thank Past Presidents / colleagues present here.

It will not be justified if I do not give credit to two organizations that tied my mind with discipline, built work ethics in me, and taught me to work selflessly—RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Sevaksang), which is going to achieve the milestone of completing 100 years in 2025, and Friends of Tribal Society—Ekal Vidyalaya.

My role as School Management Committee Member of The Heritage School, Trustee and Board Member in MC Kejriwal Vidyapeeth, and Role Independent Director in the companies has a huge impact on evolving my personality.

भूम े गरीयसीमाता, स गाातउचतरे पिता।
जननीजनभूपमशसगाात अपिगरीयसी ।।

To my parents for everything, I owe them my entire life. They are the reason for my being. No gratitude can compensate for the effort our parents put behind us.

On this I want to remember my loving grandfather for inculcating good values in my life.

I want to acknowledge and appreciate the most special lady in my life, my wife – CA Rakhi Harodia, and our loving daughter – Khyaati, and my close relatives.

My sincere acknowledgement to my teachers at different stages of my life and my articleship mentors who taught me throughout this journey.

Thanks to my partners, CA Jayesh Gupta and CA Roshan Bajaj, both have supported me like an elder brother, and also thanks to my team JPNR.

For the last 12 years, I could evolve my personality because of my ability to connect with more than 25,000 new CAs and CA aspirants through Orientation and MCS. The credit for recommending me as faculty at ICAI goes to CA Sushil Goyal.

Thanks to my clients, whose unlimited demands and doubts help me become a better professional every day, and to my well wishers.

Last but not least to this city—Kolkata, The City of Joy. Protected by the nurturing and strong hands of its mother, MAA KALI, and father, BABA BHOOTHNATH, Kolkata is the land of saint-like personalities, Rabindranath Tagore Ji and Swami Vivekananda Ji.

Today is a very special day because 132 years ago on this day, Swami Vivekanand Ji gave his historic speech in Chicago, where he portrayed a beautiful picture of our Bharat in everybody’s mind globally.

Friends, I was thinking about being a president if someone asked me why I should become part of ACAE.

The ACAE was born in Kolkata after 13 years of independence on 26th August, 1960, with 30 members.

Out of curiosity, I searched in Chatgpt, “How many professional associations like us are older than 65 years?" I found nothing except ICAI and a few others.

My growing curiosity to know more about ACAE made me go through this coffee table book, and I would like to share a few things about ACAE:

• ACAE has its own flag, which reminds its members of the purpose that unites us.
• ACAE finds its strength in its members. In 1960, it started with 30 members, and today, we are a team of 1,650 people.
• Some of our Executive Committee Members became Presidents of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
• Honorary Members of ACAE are late Somnath Chatterjee, Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Shri Y.H. Malegam, Chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Accounting Standards, Hon’ble Justice Chittatosh Mookerjee, Chief Justice of the Calcutta and Bombay High Courts; and Dr. Debi Prosad Pal, Former Union Minister of State for Finance and Former Judge of the Calcutta High Court.
• When we enter the income tax office and GST office, we find the ACAE calendar on the table of the officer, and when we introduce ourselves as Members of ACAE, it gives a sense of ownership and commitment.
• In 65 years we have seen cases where a pair of father-son both became Presidents.
• ACAE, in collaboration with The Economic Times, has hosted “The ET Bengal Corporate Awards."
• The former leaders of ACAE believed that combining education with entertainment makes learning joyous. Hence, dramas, debates, plays, and performances with an academic context have been organized.
• Legends including Bharat Ratna and Former President of India, late Shri Pranab Mukherjee, have shared their valuable insights in our event.
• We got a chance to visit Former President of India, Shrimati Pratibha Devi Singh Patil.

Friends, you need a platform to learn as a professional because after becoming a professional, you cannot go back to your school, college, or tuition to learn. An association like ACAE helps in learning with fellowship through shared experience and knowledge. Your only platform to learn is an association like this, where a 25-year-old young professional directly speaks to a 50-year-old seasoned and mature professional. ACAE is a bridge connecting junior professionals and veterans with decades of experience.

After qualifying as a CA and CS in 2009. My journey started in Deloitte, Mumbai,. Post marriage, I moved to Kolkata and after working for few months in Deloitte, Kolkata. I had no connections in this city. I started practicing as a Chartered Accountant in 2011 after leaving Deloitte.

While hunting for one such platform, I actively participated in International Conference in Kolkata under leadership of CA Subodh Agarwal. Post that I worked in Annual Conference with CA Vivek Neotia, who was President of Views Exchange in 2012. There I got the taste of professional associations and connected myself with ACAE by attending 1 st Annual Conference at ACAE in 2014 -1 5 under the leadership of CA Rishi Khatoon. Motivated by that, I became Member in ACAE 2015. I attended my 1st AGM and requested Madhav Sureka Ji to allow me to contribute to this association. I served as a member in Fellowship Committee, as a subcommittee member for two terms, thereafter, becoming the Chairperson of the committee in 2018-19. Next year under the leadership of Jitendra Lohia Ji, I became the Chairperson of Development and House Journal. In 2021-22 I was finally elected as Treasurer but the position of Fellowship Committee was not ready to leave me. Worked as Secretary in 2022-23 and as Vice president for two terms. Now, I humbly take over the position of the President.

I have narrated my story to motivate young fellows so that they learn the power of consistency, commitment and patience the results of which they will see after a decade. In an organization, decisions are not taken in a haphazard manner, there are processes, and members and Past Presidents are involved. People look at you, your behaviour and count on you.

I have a vision for the future of our association, ACAE—to connect, to Engage and to Inspire.

Connect—ACAE has led to the union of experienced practitioners, corporate executives, industrialists, and visionary entrepreneurs. We, an association of 1700 members, have to connect with one another. How well we are connected with our members and how well our members are connected with us needs to be measured.

I also learned a slogan from Ekal Vidyalaya, where Swami Vivekananda said, “Bacche Vidyalaya nahi aa sakte, toh Vidyalaya ko bacchon tak lana padega.”

The same thought process we have to follow where we need to reach our members. We will make a detailed plan for member outreach.

There are more than 10,000 professionals in Kolkata, but we are just 1,700, and our target is to reach 2,000 members this year.

To execute this, we need strong infrastructure and a back office. Necessary steps will be taken to introduce AI in our back-office working. We need a strong social media presence, mobile application, and website.

Engage - Apart from regular topics like tax and audit, subjects that require immediate attention such as succession, fundraising, new equity, GCC, offshore practice, triple entry accounting systems, and blockchain and machine learning. We would engage:

• By sharing our experiences and opinions through podcasts.
• By assigning work to young professionals for their holistic development. Engage through publications and research .
• Debate and drama would help us in engaging with one another.
• Women and the young would be given opportunities to engage.
• We will take the skill academy ahead.

Since Fellowship is my baby for long time, I would like to announce that this time we will take the taste of Indian cruise and Lakshadweep promoted by none other than our Honourable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi.

Inspire - As SHRI KRISHNA JI said in BHAGVAD GITA,

काय नमनसाबुदाक वलैररनियैरपि ।
योपगन: क माकुवानिसङं तकातम‍मुदय ॥ ११ ॥

Karma should only be done for the purification of oneself We will visit the offices of our Past Presidents to learn from them.

Success stories of members will be highlighted.

20 Committee Members will be given a Mentor.

Our aim is to make future generation ABHIGYA (Gyaani). We will launch a progam named ‘ABHIGYA’ where we will motivate our young fellows to speak.

Friends, Bharat will soon become the 3 rd largest economy. It is 4 Trillion economy currently and by 2030, we aim at reaching 10 Trillion and by 2047, it will become 55 Trillion economy. Honourable Pm Shri Narendra Modi saw the vision of AATMANIRBHAR BHARAT. For years our ‘Sone ki Chiriya’ has been living in foreign cages. Even after Independence, our wings have been crippled. We have to gain the title of ‘Sone ki Chiriya’.

We also need to think about our PM’s vision for Bhartiya Big 4.

In this journey, what will be the role of ACAE? ACAE has made a huge contribution to the development of the economy of our nation for the last 65 years, so what will be our contribution when Bharat has 100 years of its independence? Let’s visualize ACAE’s future when it completes a century.

Should we not have our own ACAE tower and have more than 10,000 members? Should we not have our own regular publication? Should we not have our own think tank that helps in making government policies? Should our members not be invited as speakers globally?

I think it’s time each member of ACAE must set a goal by keeping the 100th year of ACAE in mind. In between there is another milestone to be achieved, that is, 75 th year of ACAE which just a decade close to us. We must set target for all these and would seek guidance from galaxy of our past presidents.

Before I end my speech, let me summon my young professional brothers and sisters to be part of this movement. It will give you personal satisfaction when you come in touch with so many professionals with a positive mindset.

Many think ‘Mere paas time nahi hai,' but when you look at the Past Presidents who are available even after the completion of their tenure, let’s come out of our comfort zone.

Friends, I will be able to justify my position with the unconditional support, help, and guidance of Past Presidents, Office Bearers ,Executive Committee, Sub -C ommittee, Members,and back office. I do not have any doubt in my mind for the completion of our goals set for '25 - '26. If every member takes one step, it amounts to 1,650 steps. We have to channel this energy.

We all have our MADHYAM sent by BHAGWAAN to do our KARMAS and fulfill our responsibilities with best efforts. ARJUN became the MADHYAM that the world got the GYAAN of BHAGVAD GITA. We have 365 days, 8,760 hours and 525,600 minutes to utilize. We are going to fulfill our commitments with Purpose, Passion and Aim for Perfection.

स वािरमो धमा

By Niraj Kumar Harodia
President
Association Of Corporate Advisers & Executives (ACAE), Kolkata (2025 – 2026)