REPORT ON 11th INTERNATIONAL ACCOUNTING CONFERENCE

The 11th International Conference was held jointly with Deloitte and Eastern Institute for Integrated Learning in Management in Taj Bengal Kolkata on January 5 and 6, 2013. The theme of the conference was Sustainability: Corporate Governance, Environment and Business Reporting.

The Inaugural session started at 10.00 a.m. at the Crystal Hall of Taj Bengal Hotel on Saturday the 5th January, 2013, and Professor Bhabatosh Banerjee, President of the IAA Research Foundation, was in chair. Professor Dhrubaranjan Dandapat, Secretary of the Research Foundation, welcomed the delegates and explained details about how various sessions have been organized. In his Presidential Address, Professor Banerjee touched upon a number of intricate issues concerning the theme of the conference and emphasized the role of the members of the Foundation to undertake research works on the burning issues. Professor K.R. Sharma, Past President, Indian Accounting Association and Guest-of-Honour spoke on the role of Indian Accounting Association and some activities of the Research Foundation and emphasized that for promotion of accounting, education and research, these two national associations should work closely and tirelessly. Professor Stefano Zambon, Vice President (Conference), International Association for Accounting Education and Research (IAAER) inaugurated the conference by highlighting the role of IAAER in developing accounting education and research internationally and appreciated the efforts of IAA Research Foundation in working with close liason with IAAER. At the end, Professor Satyajit Dhar, Treasurer of IAA Research Foundation, gave hearty vote of thanks.

	In the First Plenary Session Professor Stefano Zambon, Vice-President (Conference), IAAER, University kof Ferrara, Italy, spoke on Sustainability, Integrated Reporting and the Challenges Ahead. Prof. R.P. Banerjee, Director, EIILM and one of the Vice Presidence of IAAER also spoke on the main theme of the conference. The Session was chaired by Professor Bhabatosh Banerjee, President of the Research Foundation.
	Professor Rajendra P. Srivastava of Kansas State University, Lawrence, USA, made his presentation as a keynote speaker in Plenary Session II on Assurance Services and Assurance Reports on Sustainability Reporting. Professor Parveen P. Gupta, Chair, Department of Accounting, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania, USA, spoke on Do we need a Better Governance Model for the 21st Century? The session was chaired by CA Dipankar Chatterjee, Managing Partner, L.B. Jha and Company.
	Professor Sujay Basu, Director, Centre of Energy and Environment Management, gave valedictory address on Global Warming. This session was chaired by Dr. P. Chattopadhyay, former Professor, Department of Business Administration, University of Burdwan, and former Director of Research, Institute of Cost Accountants of India.
	There were 12 concurrent sessions in which 48 research-based papers were presented by authors. These sessions were chaired by distinguished academics, professionals and corporate managers.
	As per declared policy of the Foundation, two research papers received the Namita Banerjee Memorial best paper awards of Rs.2,500 each and a citation. They are "Corporate Sustainability Reporting: Review of Initiatives and Trends" (Ms. Daizy, Dr. Mitali Sen and Dr. Niladri Das of ISM, Dhanbad) and "Efficient Market Hypothesis (Weak) & Quarterly Announcement- A Study on BSE 500 Companies" (Mr. Kaushik Banerjee of Department of Business Administration, University of Kalyani).   A cultural programme (by Nupur Dhawni Troupe) was organized in the evening on 5th January in Kala Kunj, Kala Mandir, which was followed by the conference dinner.
	All together 200 delegates attended the conference which was, as usual, a very successful event of the Research Foundation.