the institute of chartered accountants of india set...

Dear Professional Colleagues,

I am pleased to present the eighteenth editionof the newsletter of the Melbourne Chapter ofICAI.

I take this opportunity to congratulate the ICAIPresident CA Prafulla P Chajjed and team ongetting the ICAI qualification successfullyrecognized as comparable to the RQF level 7,Master’s degree standard by the NationalRecognition Information centre for UK. This isanother landmark in ICAI’s focus on promotingglobal mobility of accountancy services.

September CPD session: The CPD session forSeptember took place on 21 September, 2019.Lawyer Molina Asthana presentation was on

“Opportunities under Australia's IndiaEconomic Strategy to 2035” was veryinformative. CA Srini Vasan presented a veryinteractive session on “Creativity andInnovation”. You can find the coverage of theCPD event by CA Rekha Paul on 2 ofthis newsletter. Your managing committeewith a view to making available the CPDsessions to a greater audience trialled thewebcast of the CPD session for the first timesuccessfully. CPD sessions will also be cast livein future for those who are unable to attend.

Membership Dues: The membership feestowards the ICAI as well as the MelbourneChapter for 2019-20 are now overdue. ICAIhas extended the date of payment of fees upto 30 November, 2019.

The mode of payment fee for the MelbourneChapter has been simplified for the membersto pay the fees online. Please ensure that youhave cleared your dues to enjoy the fullbenefits of your membership of theMelbourne Chapter.

From The Editor

The Melbourne Chapter of ICAI Sep 2019 Newsletter 1

Articles: CA Anand Agarwal explores OSKO, anew payment platform (Page 4), CA SangeethaMuralidharan shares her job search journey(Page 6) and CA Mansi Shah shares herunderstanding of Domain Names (Page 9) inthis edition of newsletter.You will find CA Sangeetha Muralidharanrecommendations on podcasts on Page 8.

International Conferences: A fewInternational conferences are taking placeover the globe. Members are invited to theAbu Dhabi, Bahrain and Mumbai conferences.Invitation has been circulated by emailseparately and brochures are available onPage 13 of this newsletter.

Buddy Program: The managing committee iscurrently building the framework of the buddyprogram and you can expect it to rollout in thenew year.

Volunteers Required: We are still on thelookout for volunteers to help us withupdating our website.

Newsletter articles: All past newsletters cannow be viewed on our websitewww.icai.melbourne. I am excited to seemore participation in writing articles in thenewsletter. I encourage members to take theopportunity to write articles and send themto the attention CA Vishal Chopra [email protected].

Thanks to our newsletter team and as always,please email your feedback/suggestions [email protected].

We look forward to seeing you at the CPD sessions and thank you once again for your

continued support.CA Anbu Mohan

Chairman

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ◊ SET UP BY AN ACT OF PARLIAMENT ◊ SEP 2019

http://www.icai.melbourne/

mailto:[email protected]


The Melbourne Chapter of ICAI – Sep 2019 Newsletter 2

Managing Committee 2019-20:

Chairperson CA Anbu MohanVice-Chairperson CA Harsha Vardhan SinghSecretary CA Pankaj DamleTreasurer CA Ambuj GoelPublic Officer CA Prity SardaInternal Auditor CA Foham ShethCommittee Member CA Anirudh MisraCommittee Member CA Anand AgarwalCommittee Member CA Cinku BalakrishnanCommittee Member CA Rekha PaulCommittee Member CA Vishal Chopra

Advisory Committee 2019-20:

CA Sameer ManduskarCA Amar DutiaCA Manish HambardayCA Vimal Gehlot

Newsletter Team:

CA Vishal Chopra, EditorCA Sangeetha Muralidharan, ContributorCA Anirudh Misra, ContributorCA Sameer ManduskarCA Anand AgarwalCA Pankaj DamleCA Harsha Vardhan SinghCA Anbu Mohan

Upcoming CPD Sessions:

During the month of October, in view of the Diwalifestival on 27 October, the CPD session has beenshifted to the 19 October, 2019 and will take placeat the Activities room, Library of the docks,Melbourne.

Please ensure that your phone number and emailare up-to-date with the Chapter to avoid missingimportant communication. To update your contactdetails, write in to [email protected] [email protected].

The Melbourne Chapter of ICAI - Newsletter SEP 2019

Melbourne Chapter of the ICAI – An Introduction

CPD session October 2019:

Date 19 October 2019Venue Multipurpose room,

Docklands Community HUB, Melbourne

Time 10:00 am to 2:00 pmCPD hours 3 hours

Topic and speaker details will be advised closer to the date. Please mark the date in your calendar

Membership Renewal:

Membership fees for 2019-20 are now overdueand renewal letters have been sent to all themembers. To renew your membership, please clickon the below link and pay your due as per renewalnotice mailed to you:https://zohosecurepay.com/checkout/bnxmgvb-d4qxa5rd0z8ac/Renewal-of-Annual-Membership-Fees

New members who have joined in August 2019

Nitin BartakkeMansi ShahMohit GallaniIwan SeqiieraPankti Patel

Wish to contribute to the newsletter?

Please write in to [email protected] withyour details and explaining the topics on which youwould like to contribute.

Questions? Suggestions?

Please write in to [email protected] [email protected]



https://zohosecurepay.com/checkout/bnxmgvb-d4qxa5rd0z8ac/Renewal-of-Annual-Membership-Fees




The Melbourne Chapter of ICAI Sep 2019 Newsletter

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Photos from the CPD session in September 2019

The Melbourne Chapter Newsletter SEP 2019

Molina Asthana conducting the sessionCA Anbu Mohan presenting Momento to Molina Asthana after the session

CA Srini Vasan- during the session CA Pankaj Dmle presenting Momento to CA Srini Vasan after the session

CA Anand Agarwal co-ordinating the webcast Audience during the CPD session

Banking at Real-Time: An introduction to The New Payment Platform (NPP) and OSKO by BPAY

These institutions commenced rolling out services to their customers on Tuesday, 13 February 2018 and the first official payment made on the NPP was a donation to the Alannah and Madeline Foundation Charity for Children.

The NPP has the below four key features and changes brought


CA Anand Agarwal explores OSKO a new payment platform which aims to revolutionize the

way we Bank in the days to come

Think of a scenario, that you are at ashop, wanted to take a delivery of yourproduct by making payment. Suddenlyyou realise that you have forgotten yourwallet or they charge for using card. Yourequest the shopkeeper to acceptpayment via bank transfer to which heagreed, but cannot release the product,until they see credit their account, whichwill not be until next day unless you arelucky to be banking with the same bank.

How great it would have been if paymentthrough bank transfer would have instantcredit in real-time.

The New Payments Platform is the resultof unprecedented industry collaborationin response to a review of the Australianpayments system by the RBA’s PaymentsSystem Board in 2012. This reviewidentified opportunities for the Australianpayments system, principally thecapability to make payments in real-time.

The NPP is payments infrastructure thatenables Australian consumers, businessesand government agencies to make real-time, data-rich payments betweenaccounts at participating financialinstitutions. It supports real-time clearingand settlement for simple or complexpayment solutions and has the potentialto deliver significant back-officeefficiencies.

The NPP went live in November 2017,supporting payments first between asmall number of employees working atthe initial participating financialinstitutions.


Speed and Always onPerhaps the shining light and mostanticipated feature of the New PaymentsPlatform is the ability for consumers tomake ‘real-time’ transfers betweendifferent banks and providers. Gone are thedays when we would be forced to wait upto two - three days between asking yourmate to send you cash for those movietickets, and the money actually hitting youraccount. Operating 24/7, 365 days a year,the new platform will do away with lengthywait times between transfers on weekendsand public holidays - effectively bringing thebanking system in line with much of therest of Australia, which is increasinglyoperating on par with the speed of theonline world.

Banking at Real-Time: An introduction to The New Payment Platform (NPP) and OSKO by BPAY (contd.)

Osko is first ‘overlay service’ which utilisesthe infrastructure of the New PaymentsPlatform from payments platform BPAY,which was launched in February 2018. It’sdesigned to facilitate the real timetransferring of funds between individualsor businesses and is one of the firstservices to operate using the NewPayment Platform (NPP).

It allows customers to make near instantpayments from one bank account toanother, either by using a BSB andaccount number or a PayID, which isanother of the banking services which wasintroduced as part of the NPP.

Financial institutions offering Oskogenerally make it available to theircustomers through mobile and onlinebanking, but certain banks may only offerit via one of these methods.

We are able to use the service in the sameway we would make transfers using ourbank’s mobile app or website, but insteadof the normal transfer process we will begiven the option to select the ‘Osko’option which will provide us with thebenefits of real-time transfers and PayID.

The Melbourne Chapter of ICAI – Sep 2019 Newsletter

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.Data Enriched

Squeezing a useful transaction descriptioninto less than 30 characters can befrustrating to say the least, and oftenproduces the kind of condensednonsense.

Thankfully that character limit for transferdescriptions has been generously uppedwith the launch of the NPP, withAustralians now able to use up to 280characters (including emojis) to describetheir transfers.

PayID is the name of the NPP’s addressingservice. It’s a function of the Platform thatallows users to link easy-to-rememberpieces of information, such as their phonenumber or email address, ABN/CAN totheir bank account. Users can providetheir PayID, instead of their BSB andaccount number, to people ororganisations they wish to receivepayments from in real-time.

Scenario 2: Four friends went torestaurant. They decided to split the billbut restaurant owner does not allowsplitting of bill. Now one of the friendmakes the payment and other threefriends make the payment to him usinghis mobile number and he gets the fund inthe his bank account instantly. its cool!

Requirement: The person who have madethe payment must have registered hismobile number as PAYID with his bankand linked his bank account and otherthree friends are banking with financialinstitution supporting NPP. Currentlymore than 50 financial institutionsupports NPP)


Reference:https://www.osko.com.au/https://www.nppa.com.au/https://mozo.com.au/bank-accounts/guides/banking-in-a-flash-a-guide-to-the-new-payments-platform-npp

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Melbourne Chapter of ICAI

https://www.osko.com.au/

https://www.nppa.com.au/

https://mozo.com.au/bank-accounts/guides/banking-in-a-flash-a-guide-to-the-new-payments-platform-npp

My experience ‘Job hunting’ in Australia By Sangeetha Muralidharan

displays your key achievements that youmight have otherwise modestly hiddenaway at the back of your CV!

Small changes to your resume can have abig impact on how it is perceived. Thelanguage, length, order, font size may seemtrivial at first, but I’ve had recruiters tell methat they appreciated how succinct myresume was versus some others that theycome across. For example, I found thatemployers here are firstly looking to see thedepth and variety of your past roles and theskills you have built through them, beforewanting to understand your detailededucational and personal background.

Also, having a career summary in yourresume is key to getting noticed as itbecomes you ‘Elevator pitch’ and forcesyou to think about what it is that you bringto the table that other applicants may not?When I applied for my first job, what set meapart from other candidates was that I hadexperience using a specific ERP system andwas available to join immediately.Therefore, highlighting these in the careersummary will be key to your success. I alsotailored my resume for each jobapplication, which is a lot of work, but itimproved my chance of hearing fromrecruiters.

So, I would urge you to think about howrelevant your resume is to currentexpectations of recruiters in Australia. Pickup some sample Australian resumes of theroles you want to apply for and re-assesswhere you stand. Also, including some keydetails from your resume into your LinkedInprofile can help recruiters find you with a‘Keyword’ search.


CA Sangeetha Muralidharan describes her job search journey

My husband and I, like many othersimmigrating on Permanent visa toAustralia, left our jobs in India to find anew career path ‘Down under’. Havinglast worked in an Indian company, I wasworried that not having exposure torecognisable multi-national businesses,will impede my chances at finding asuitable job. Once I arrived in Australia,the change in culture and environment hitme harder than I thought! Living in awestern country for the first time andstarting from scratch had shunned myconfidence, when it came to job search. Itwas a tough run!

Fast forward 5 years, I have learnt a lotfrom my experience. In this time, I havefaced a lot of rejection in job search,moved 3 jobs, was even made redundanton my very first job in Australia! But allthose experiences shaped my career andpointed me some other opportunity, allthe while, helping me get better at ‘Jobhunting’! So, I thought I would sharewisdom I’ve been privy to from myrecruiters that might help you to landyour next job in Australia. Good luck!

Your Resume is more important than youthink

During my first few weeks in Australia, assoon as I was ready to work, I spent sometime looking for a resume writer thatcould help me re-frame my experience tobe more relevant to Australian employers.In hindsight, this was the one thing thatgot my profile noticed and led to my firstcall with a recruiter. A resume writer (youcould even use the help of a willing friendwho has been working in Australia) willlisten to your experience, filter to themost important details/keywords andbring out a resume and cover letter thatproudly


happy to provide a quick feedback and some will even go the extra mile to recommend other roles that might be more suitable to your expertise.

As mentioned before, this will ensure youkeep improving your interview/presentation skills and also stay top ofmind with recruiters should anothersuitable role come up in the market.

Be flexible but sensible

After looking for a job without success for2 months, I had started to feel lessconfident. I would apply for just ANYaccounting role/ ANY salary levels in themarket. It was not only stressful applyingfor so many jobs, but it also meant that Iwas not being efficient in focussing myresume on the 2-3 roles I had the mostchance with. Instead, I would copy thesame resume and cover letter over toevery one of the 100 odd jobs I applied forin that week. I learnt quickly that it is notat all about the quantity of jobs you applyfor but picking out the ones that will buildon your current experience and lead youto your career ambition. Applying for rolesyou are overqualified for will not win youinterviews with agents. In fact, a colleaguein the recruitment business mentioned tome to never show signs of desperation toan agent, they might lose confidence inyou and assume you are not serious aboutgetting a suitable role. Having said that,you could still be flexible on some aspectsto seize an opportunity to enter theindustry like taking up a contract/Metleave cover vs. Permanent opportunity,location of the job or part time vs. fulltime.

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Unlike India, where most companies have in-house resources who screen throughthousands of applications for a job, mostemployers in Australia hire agents to do thiswork for them and shortlist 2-3 candidatesfor an interview. This means that when youapply for a role, you present your experienceto the agents first, not to the actualemployers. Therefore, building connectionswith multiple agencies becomes important.Whenever I would apply for a role, I wouldcall the agent responsible for it the next dayasking if they received my details and givethem an overview of my experience. I foundthat most recruiters were happy to meet andget to know my background so they can keepme updated not just on the role I applied for,but if anything else more relevant came up.As I built more and better relationships withagents, I would get calls about jobs thatweren’t even on the market yet, but I wasbeing briefed in, as I was top of mind.Building a network of connections withagents can only be good for you. When Imeet recruitment agents, I am very clear withthem about the most ideal role I am lookingfor and my salary range and we have an openconversation about what gaps inskills/knowledge there are to get me there.Agents can be your advocates, when they putin a good word for you to the employers, itwill greatly improve your outcome insecuring the right job!

Follow up for feedbackSo, you have had your interview with agentsor employers directly, but have not heardback from them or just received an e-mailthat you have been unsuccessful in making itto the next round. What do you do? You callyour agent and follow up. You ask forfeedback on what they thought of you duringthe interview and the way you presentedyour experience. Feedback on why you wereunsuccessful and what you could do betternext time is priceless. Most agents are quite



My experience ‘Job hunting’ in Australia (Contd.)By Sangeetha Muralidharan

In summary, while you may feel like youare starting from scratch looking for yourfirst job in Australia, you don’t need tonullify your experience overseas. In fact,wear it with pride and be sensible aboutwhich roles to apply for. Choose wisely!

Network, Network, Network!

Settling in a new country, I had ZEROprofessional network to start with. Slowly,as I built relationships with recruitmentsagents, I got invited to job expos orprofessional networking events. This iswhere I met a lot of other job seekers tounderstand how they are approachingjobs and build some connections I couldleverage in the future. I also attended

some technical meetups (E.g. FinancialModelling, Females in Accountingnetwork) which helped me quiz a fewother attendees on how they landed theirfirst job and about the key soft/technicalskills that most employers are on theprowl for.

Over my last few jobs, I have had a lot ofhelp from my network to inform me ofthe latest professional news or introduceme to a mentor or even refer me to a jobin their company. So keep building yourtrusted network across as many platformsas you can including ICAI Melbournechapter and you may find someunexpected opportunities come your way.

By CA Sangeetha Muralidharan

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Podcast RecommendationsWhether you are a busy professional feeling unproductive during your daily commute towork or are just sick of staring at your laptop and smartphone screens for all your content,podcasts are a great 'bite size' media to keep you on top of your area of interest. This newsection will feature some great podcasts relevant for today's professionals! You can listen tothem on podcast apps like Castbox, Overcast, Spotify or just on Google Podcasts on yourphone.This month's recommendations:The Indicator from Planet money: 'Finance Friday' series is where the finance geeksanswer some burning questions from listeners on business, economy and how the financialmarkets behaveThe Financial Modelling podcasts: 'Financial modelling addins....the future of modelling?'Can you create a financial model using an Excel add-in? Is creating a model as easier asselecting a few options from a modelling wizard? In this episode of the Financial ModellingPodcast, we chat to Alexander Artajaya about how he dived into the world of financialmodelling using add-ins. We discuss the pros and cons of Excel financial modelling tools,and what could soon be the future of financial modelling.

CA Sangeetha Muralidharan



My experience ‘Job hunting’ in Australia (Contd.)By Sangeetha Muralidharan

Understanding domain is very importantin the world of online marketing andbranding, which was known to quite a fewof us. However, the motivation behindthis article was the session of 24th Aug,2019, where personal branding wasdiscussed and domain were emphasizedon. Some of us are aware about domainsand even use it, while some are not muchaware of what this is all about. So here isan article giving clarity about domains.

Meaning of Domain Name

Domain name is having an unique identityindividual or a business on the internet. Itis a name given to the unique IP address.Just like in a phone contact names areunique identity for each contact numberor house address is unique for eachhouse, same is domain on the net.

Who can create a domain name?

Anyone who wants to secure their nameon the net. It is just like registeringtrademark/ patent on the net. Once aname is registered as a domain, it cannotbe sold again to anyone else.

Creator can be:

• An individual for personal branding.

• A business or company for theirproduct line and details

• A community like education/military/ government etc. forspreading required details/updates.

• Basically, it for those who want toexist on the net for their specificpurpose and make it available tomajority/ specific group or region.

Difference between a domain name andwebsite as well as email.

No, they are not the same. Insteadwebsite and email are subset of thedomain. So later can exist without former,but vice-verse is not possible.

Why are they not the same?

As mentioned earlier, domain is namegiven to a IP address. A website and emailneed that name.

Continuing to example of contact name toa unique number- you cannot add detailslike date of birth, email address, cannotlink the contacts with other social mediaapps and so on without having that nameon your device.

It is not even compulsory to have awebsite or email for the registereddomain; however, it is always better tohave one or both.

Working of domain on the Net

It works on the basis of keywords.

Further to the example of contacts. Wealways search the name on any device/sight for having all the stored details,rarely do we go based on details. Samehappens on the net.

e.g. search HP laptop - search engine willtrigger the sites that have all HP laptops.Now if you search HP 14 inch Laptop +Windows 10 - search engine will haveoptions based on each or all thekeywords.

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Understanding Domain Name CA Mansi Shah

CA Mansi Shah shares her research on Domain names



Domain Extensions

Domain extensions are an important partof domain name and play important rolein appearing in searches. Types ofextensions:

Top Level Domain/ TLD: they are mostcommon and are listed highest in thedomain name system.

.com, .net and .org are the most common.

.biz, .me, .pro etc are also TLDs, but notcommon. Hence many sites do notsuggest using them.

Country Code Top Level Domain/ ccTLD:These are country specific extensions inaddition to TLD. They are used for targetaudiences.

.com.au for Australia,.in for IndiaSuch others.

Sponsored Top Level Domain/ sTLD: Theyreflect specific community or purposethey serve.

• .gov for government

• .edu for education

• Others

Choose a domain extension that best suitsyour brand and which is common, as thatwill also help to show on search engines.

Selection of name

• Keep it short and easy toremember. 6-10 word length isconsidered good length.

• Have a name that is easy to type foryour target group.

• Choose a name based on yourproduct and target audience.

Choose an extension based on type ofbranding and target group. e.g. .com.au isused to target audience of Australia. Theydo not appear in search engines of othercountries, unless specifically searchedbased on country.

Do proper research. Search using different keywords related to the product you want to sell. Try using different keywords.

Notice the sites appearing most of the search engine based on permutation-combination of different keywords. Just like example of laptop mentioned above.

Can use Google keyword planner orKWfinder for less competitive and highappearance chances on search engineoptions.

Some well-known domain generatingsites

Following options are based on search ofbest domain creators from various sites,there are more sites available:

• Domain.com

• Bluehost

• Hostgator

• Godaddy

• Namecheap

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Understanding Domain Name (Contd.) CA Mansi Shah



Why to have a domain name?

In today’s world, internet is a technical supermarket that basically has each and everyindustry and information available on hand.

In this market your domain helps you look professional and also display why your productis different from others in the market, it is like an online pitch for your product to attractcustomers.

So, basically:

It is an investment and not an expense.CA Mansi Shah

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Understanding Domain Name (Contd.) CA Mansi Shah

International Conference Brochures




Below are the brochures of launch of the International conference by the ICAI on Dec 6 and 7 in Mumbai and on 29 and 30 November in Bahrain. Group discounts are available for the Bahrain chapter conference for interested members

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The CPD session for September 2019 saw two very accomplished individuals from theIndian diaspora educating the attendees about opportunities under Australia’s IndianEconomic Strategy and also about the importance of creativity and innovation in humanlives.

The proceedings for the day were started by Miss Molina Asthana who gave theprofessional attendees an overview of the plethora of opportunities that exist today indifferent key sectors like Education, Agri-business, resources and tourism, health, energy,sport, science and innovation and Financial services and what Australia can do to tap thesesegments to boost its trade ties with India by the year 2035.

Her session outlined the growing importance of the Indian community in Australia in termsof not only it’s sheer size (approximately 700,000 strong and growing) and how they are akey element of the Australian economy with Australian-Indian’s being the 2nd highest taxpaying diaspora, only behind the British. She stressed on how this diaspora can leverage itsroots in India to further the business prospects between the two great commonwealthnations of Australia and India in the years to come. She also laid stress on the diaspora tobecome more politically active in order to influence key stake holders in State and Federalgovernment which would in turn help the cause of furthering business relations betweenthese two democracies and also help Australia in de-risking its current trade practices ifthere were to be any future geopolitical power realignments.

Molina also informed the audience about the State government of Victoria’s strategytowards fostering better economic ties with India in the years to come and how it wastrying to build more people to people contact between Victorian’s and Indians. Thisstrategy involves cultural engagements and building cultural precincts, introducingrelationship ambassadors to champion Victoria-India relationship, enabling Government-Industry engagement, invest in structures to help Victorian businesses connect to andsucceed in India, build relationships with Indian state governments, drive closerengagement across priority sectors like education and health, Invest in pivotal drivers ofbusiness growth like ICT and Clean energy and also the possible introduction of a shorterair route between Victoria and Southern India.

Our second speaker of the day, CA Srini Vasan started off the post lunch session with a talkon the importance of Creativity and Innovation and emphasised on its importance inpredicting future trends and improving human lives. He spoke about love, compassion,creativity, empathy, courage and determination which he believes are the key attributes infostering creativity and also stressed on a set of attributes like surveillance, evaluation,competition, over-control, pressure and time which according to him are the keyimpediments to creativity.

Srini Vasan then dwelled on the importance of innovation in human lives and how it oftenproved to be the cause of downfall for a lot of previously very successful large enterprisesthe world over, that had failed to see the onset of change and adapt according to the needsof the changing world. He then went on to enlighten the audience about the left and rightbrain and how these two parts of the human brain play a role in fostering qualities relatedto creativity and innovation in human beings.

The members expressed their gratitude to both the speakers for their valuable insights.

CPD session coverage CA Rekha Paul




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The Melbourne Chapter of ICAI - Sep 2019 Newsletter

Website

Require volunteers to help with updating the Melbourne Chapters website. We are looking for anyone who has a passion for web development and the ability to keep the website updated on a regular basis. Interested persons please contact [email protected] or [email protected]




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