Mumbai: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Friday that the adoption of new technology is necessary for a transparent accounting system. "Transparent accounting is also essential for a sustainable economy and transparency cannot be ensured without trust and ethical accounting practices," she said while addressing the 21st World Congress of Accountants. The 21st World Congress of Accountants is being jointly organised by the International Federation of Accountants (IFCA) and the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI). The four-day global conference, held once in four years, is being organised for the first time in the country. The conference was inaugurated by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla.
"Adoption of new technology is necessary for a transparent accounting system. This is also necessary for sustainable livelihoods of our people and also for sustainable manufacturing and services," said Sitharaman.
"Innovative technologies like Web 3.0, which has already taken over our lives, can bring about a lot of changes in the way we conduct our businesses," she added.
The minister also said that technologies such as blockchain, machine learning, artificial intelligence, data analytics and cloud computing will not only improve the accounting process but will also make decision-making process highly tech-and-machine driven. Sitharaman also cited Web3 applications and stated that they run on decentralised systems like blockchain.
She also emphasised on the need for more transparency in corporate governance and that the fundamental pillar in this regard was transparent accounting. Further, the minister mentioned the need for having a global system for sustainability reporting standards.
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