FE CFO Awards held in Mumbai

The event celebrated the excellence, best practices and outstanding achievements by India’s leading Chief Financial Officers

The FE CFO of the Year Awards 2017, an initiative of The Financial Express, recently celebrated the excellence, best practices and outstanding achievements by India’s leading Chief Financial Officers in Mumbai.

The keynote address was delivered by Bibek Debroy, Member, NITI Aayog. Debroy said the government expected the second Income Declaration Scheme (IDS II), which will end on March 31, to yield around Rs 2 lakh crore. “This does not mean all the money that is back has become legitimate and has been converted into white. The scrutiny is going to happen now,” he cautioned, however, that while tax inspectors “go after the mala fide accounts, there is also the danger they would go after some bonafide ones.”

Debroy noted that the business environment in the country must be improved for every entrepreneur, pointing out that not every entrepreneur was necessarily a corporate entity. He added that a large part of entrepreneurship was in the informal economy, which was why Prime Minister Narendra Modi had stressed on the importance of start-ups.

A total of 26 awards were given away across three main categories, which were:

• Gross turnover less than Rs 500 crore
• Gross turnover greater than or equal to Rs 500 crore and lesser than Rs 1000 crore
• Gross turnover greater than Rs 1000 crore

Under each main category the winners were divided into two sub segments.

The winning performances – across six categories – were picked by a high-powered jury chaired by R Seshasayee, chairman, Infosys. The other members were YM Deosthalee, Chairman, L&T Finance Holdings, Leo Puri, MD, UTI Asset Management, Pradip Shah, Chairman, IndAsia Fund Advisors, and Amit Chandra, MD, Bain Capital. Performances of 150 firms were assessed.

Deosthalee received the Lifetime Achievement award. He successfully managed the complex financial portfolio at the engineering giant for more than two decades. He ensured all risks were covered, all exposures hedged and that the treasury operations were robust.

R Shankar Raman, Director and CFO, L&T, walked away with the CFO of the Year award. Shankar Raman managed the finances of L&T at a time when growth is subdued and cash flows are slow. His excellent management of working capital ensured that L&T has more than weathered the storm.

The number crunching was done by Deloitte, the knowledge partner for the awards, which ensured all the right ratios were used to arrive at shortlists.