Mumbai : One of Bombay’s leading commerce colleges, Podar College of Commerce and Economics, is to work with global accountancy body ACCA (the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants) to raise awareness among their students as future business leaders about the role the finance profession can play in combating the impact of climate change and environmental damage.

ACCA is also offering scholarships to 75 winners of various finance based national competitions that are run as part of Moneta – Podars’ annual commerce fest. The scholarships, worth a total of 1200,000 rupees, will facilitate these students to join the ACCA fraternity globally and be part of ACCA’s half million student base around the world.

Both announcements follow ACCA’s sponsorship and involvement in MONETA, which aims at developing the financial knowledge of aspiring students. ACCA ran a seminar on carbon accounting on the final day of this year’s MONETA, which included competitions, seminars and workshops aimed at giving young people a realistic view of the business world.

ACCA has been involved in environmental and sustainability reporting issues for more than 20 years. Only last week it issued a briefing paper in conjunction with KPMG and Fauna and Flora International which outlines how materiality definitions are changing to include natural capital and which encourages business reporting to follow suit.

ACCA is concerned that natural capital – the stock of capital derived from natural resources such as biodiversity, ecosystems and services they provide – is declining globally. Business operations that have negative environmental impacts can have high, but often unrecognised costs for organisations, investors and society.

Ilham Punjani, Business Relationship Manager with ACCA in India said: “ACCA has long urged accountants to work to measure the environmental impact of their activities, including through the burning of carbon fuels, since we believe it is not possible to manage something which we don’t measure. We look forward to working with young minds at Podar college, to raise environmental and sustainability issues with its students –India’s business leaders of tomorrow.”

Moneta 2013 was also graced by Ms. Chitra Ramakrishna – CEO & MD of National Stock Exchange of India Limited, Mr. Jayesh Sule – Executive Director of National Securities Depository Limited, Dr. Urjit Patel – Deputy Governor of The Reserve Bank of India, Dr. Narendra Jadhav – Member of the Planning Commission and National Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, Mr. S. N. Ananthasubramaniam – President of Institute of Company Secretaries of India, Dr. Radhakrishnan Pillai, a.k.a Chanakya Pillai, Mr. Ramesh Srinivasan – Director of Kotak Investment Banking, Mr. S. P. Tulsiyan to name a few. Over 40 colleges from across the country participated in this financial extravaganza during the event days.

“In an era where global education and academic qualifications have become vital, ACCA’s generous initiative of partnering with Podar Moneta 2013 with scholarships for the winners is a commendable initiative. Moreover, the seminar on Environmental Accounting conducted by ACCA complimented the culture of learning that Podar Moneta always strives for. The partnership with ACCA has been satisfying and enriching and we, at Moneta look forward to continue the same,” said Divya Venkataraman, Chairperson, Podar College.

Source : Sachin Murdeshwar