Meet our mentor @CA. Dr. Anand Banka
Being selected in the small research team during articleship to research on IFRS, Anand grab the opportunity to learn something new which later on turned out to be his area of specialization..!
Recently, we interacted with CA. Dr. Anand Banka in which he shared about his journey of selecting CA as a career option, opting for PhD, his valuable experiences and advice to young Chartered Accountants looking to specialize in Ind-AS & IFRS domain.
1. What excited you to select CA as a career option?
I was an active kid. I used to work as an intern during my school holidays. I used to look through newspapers for vacancies and apply for them while in school. I have sold payphone subscriptions and auto loans during my holidays. It was not for money, but for the experience. The next year I did internship at a CA firm doing bank reconciliation statements. The year after, in another CA firm, I was involved in an audit of a media group. All these were informal jobs for me that gave me an insight into what my life as a CA would be. I just loved the experience and hence decided to pursue CA as my career.
2. Can you share about your articleship experience and how you developed your interest towards Ind AS/ IFRS?
Frankly, it was my Partner at Haribhakti & Co. that had the vision to create a separate team of 2-3 members specializing in IFRS. He selected me and I grabbed the opportunity to learn something new. This was way back in 2006, when there was nothing available in India to learn IFRS – no classes, no books, nothing. We had to go through the bare text and discuss the interpretation within the team and arrive at possible implications. I realized then that accounting is not simply posting entries, but understanding the substance of the transaction, framework of the standards and accordingly reflecting in the books. I realized that very few people in India specialized in IFRS and hence this is a domain I can specialize in.
3. Can you share your journey of becoming a visiting faculty for ICAI and other platforms?
While I was specializing in IFRS, we were teaching the subject to our colleagues in other departments and to our clients. I slowly started taking up lectures at study circles in Mumbai. It was difficult at first to manage senior people, I was made fun of during