Dear Members,

Greetings from the Bengaluru Branch!

I hope this issue of Utkarsha finds each of you in good health and energised. April has closed on a high note, marking a strong start for the new financial year with the successful conclusion of bank audit season, year-end closures, and the significant statutory transition in the Income Tax Act, 2025 and the Labour Codes.

This issue carries a theme that is deeply personal to me, and one I believe will come to define our generation of profession - “The New Face of CA: Smarter, Strategic, AI-Driven, and Led by Women.” This is not merely a slogan crafted for a cover but an honest reflection of our profession and future direction.

I am drawn to a Vachana of Akka Mahadevi, whose 12th-century voice carries a courage and I find remarkably relevant to our profession today:

ಬೆಟ್ಟದ ಮೇಲೊಂದು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಡಿ

ಮೃಗಗಳಿಗಂಜಿದೊಡೆಂತಯ್ಯ?

ಸಮುದ್ರದ ತಡಿಯಲ್ಲೊಂದು ಮನೆಯ ಮಾಡಿ

ನೊರೆ ತೆರೆಗಳಿಗಂಜಿದೊಡೆಂತಯ್ಯ?

“If you build a house on a mountaintop,
why fear the wild beasts?
If you build a house on the seashore,
why fear the foam and the waves?”

Our generation of Chartered Accountants has chosen to build at precisely such an elevation at the intersection of finance, technology, governance and trust. The waves of Artificial Intelligence, the steepening climb of regulatory complexity, the tides of global capital and the rising bar of stakeholder expectation are not threats, but they are the landscape of our profession, be it practice or industry! The question before us, therefore, is not whether we will face them but how we will lead this change with conviction. And, I believe we are well prepared!

The New Face of CA

Let me briefly highlight each of the four phrases that define this theme, as each holds significant meaning.

We are Smarter because our practice has shifted from rule following to sense making. Today’s CA not just reads the trial balance but also the business model behind it and the broader implications it carries for capital, governance and reputation. We ask better questions before we reach for answers, and we offer counsel that values both insight and accuracy.

We are Strategic because we have moved from being mere compilers of numbers to counsellors of decisions. Today the Chartered Accountant is a partner in mergers and acquisitions, a custodian of ESG and sustainability disclosures, a translator of regulation into strategy, a steward of governance, and increasingly a director on the boards of the very enterprises we once audited. We have crossed from the back office to the boardroom. This shift is driven by our competence built over the years.

We are AI-Driven, not replaced by AI, but amplified by it. ICAI’s own AI Certificate Course demonstrates that our Institute is committed to ensuring that no member is left behind in this transition. AI shoulders the repeatable and the routine, allowing us to carry on the judgment, ethics, advisory, and the trust that defines our profession.

And we are Led by Women as our profession finally begins to reflect the diversity of the country it serves. Nearly one in three new Chartered Accountancy students is a woman. The classroom, leadership pipeline, and meeting rooms are changing. The profession is gradually adopting a new, more inclusive face.

Every senior member who mentors a younger one, every woman member who encourages and supports a young woman, is quietly shaping the new face of our profession.

As Chairperson of one of the largest and most vibrant Branches of the ICAI, it is my responsibility to ensure that this momentum is matched, at every stage, with mentorship, opportunities and visible pathways for the women in our profession. Our Branch’s programs are designed to achieve this.

The future of this profession must be both inclusive and equitable.

April in Retrospect

April was a month of doing at the Branch, and the calendar mirrored the breadth of our members’ professional needs.

Our Year End Book Closure and Compliance Series brought members together across Accounting Standards, Income Tax, GST and the Companies Act, equipping each of us to close the year with confidence and clarity.

Under our Think Global, Serve Global initiative, the half-day seminar on UK Outsourcing Opportunities offered members tangible pathways to expand their practice beyond domestic geography and to participate meaningfully in the global services economy.

Our AI Certificate Course, along with specialized programmes on FEMA and DISA, reflected our commitment to keeping members future ready.

Our new initiative, “The Moot Tribunal: From Practice to Courtroom” has been designed to open a new doorway for our women members and young professionals into tax litigation as a meaningful and rewarding arena of practice. Tax litigation has long been an under represented vertical, particularly for our women members; this programme is our considered attempt to begin changing that.

The participating cohorts were shortlisted through an assessment, and they are now ready to present their arguments before the Moot Bench on 9^th May 2026. I invite each one of you to join us that day, to encourage these participants and cheer them on as they argue their case. Their courage deserves our presence.

The workshop on Wealth Management in Volatile Market Conditions equipped members to guide their clients through unsettled markets with greater clarity, and the full-day workshop on Estate Planning enabled members to take up succession planning as a meaningful advisory vertical under their own banner, a vertical whose relevance only deepens as Indian household wealth crosses generational hands at an unprecedented scale.

To every member who registered, attended, taught and mentored, “Thank you”. The Branch’s energy is, and has always been, your energy.

May Ahead

May carries the same momentum forward, with a deliberate emphasis on the theme of this issue. The calendar features programmes that bring AI from concept to keyboard, sessions that strengthen our women members in leadership and litigation practice, and that keeps us current with the evolving regulatory landscape, most notably the practical application of the Income Tax Act, 2025.

We will also carry our Think Global, Serve Global series forward, this time turning our lens toward UAE tax laws and the opportunities they open up for the CA community. The UAE’s evolving Corporate Tax framework is an arena in which Indian Chartered Accountants are uniquely well positioned to lead in a rapidly globalising Indian enterprise scenario.

We have curated a Residential Refresher Course (RRC) on the Cruise with a view to help you to navigate and ride the rising tides that are taking the profession to newer horizons. This RRC would be a landmark one and is set to provide you all a memorable experience for sure. So, do not miss the opportunity.

As I conclude, I would like to leave you with this thought, We are the professionals who give the financial system its most credible signature. As that signature is increasingly co-written by women, increasingly augmented by AI, and increasingly read inside the boardrooms. We must remember that the source of its credibility has not changed and will not change. It rests, as it always has, on competence, integrity and Trust.

Let us continue to build our house on the mountaintop without fear, and on the seashore without doubt. The profession is in good, capable and increasingly diverse hands.

For when we grow together, the profession grows stronger.

Wishing each one of you an inspiring May ahead !

Yours in service,

CA Kavitha Paramesh
Chairperson
ICAI Bengaluru Branch (SIRC)