Palash Maheshwari - Winner Of Most Employable CA Challenge 2021

"Hailing from a small town, I was neither aware of my capabilities nor knew much about the opportunities. I always lived in my present and focused on my next target. I was always good in studies but achieving All India Ranks at all the levels of CA and CS examinations is something which is quite exceptional for me. I have worked in different domains like tax consulting, corporate finance, investment banking in my very short career."

What do you think is the purpose of your career? How is it going to make an impact in the world?

“In my current role as an investment banker, my purpose is to make the funds available to the mid-market companies who have the potential to achieve much higher scales. I am mostly involved in cross-border transactions which lead to much-needed foreign investments in India.

When a mid-size company or a start-up competes with giant MNCs and corporates, financial stability plays a very crucial role. As these companies are mostly at the level from where they can either achieve exponential growth or lose to the large corporates in the competition, we play a key role not only in their sustainability but also in their growth.

90% of the Indian start-ups fail within five years of their inception as per a report by IBM Institute for Business Value and Oxford Economics and one of the key reasons was the non-availability of funds. I dream of changing this scenario and want to be the engine in India's growth story."

Tell us a difficult situation which you faced in your previous company / articleship and how did you handle it?

“While working in Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL), one of my responsibilities was to approve the payments made to the freight vendors. One of our vendors was wrongly charging GST which was approximately costing the company a loss of INR 4.8 crores per annum. I discussed the issue with my counterpart in the vendor's company but he denied to accept my contention. After that, I studied the GST laws again and made a report in support of my contention. I discussed that with my reporting manager and sought his permission to halt the payment to the vendor. My reporting manager asked me to handle the situation myself and talk to the department head. Before going to my department head, I went to the taxation department to seek their opinion. They agreed with me. I then approached the department head and discussed with her. We then held a couple of meetings with the vendor wherein I was leading the discussions from our side. We were finally able to convince them and sort out the issue.”

Tell us about a time when you had to manage a team and demonstrate leadership skills.

“I am leading the team of analysts and interns in my current role. Initially, when I got this responsibility, I used to face many issues -

(a) Time involvement to train my subordinates

(b) Acting as a middle layer between my superiors and subordinates lead to increased coordination

But slowly I learnt many things -

(a) Time involvement in training subordinates is not a waste of time but investment of time

(b) I cannot do everything myself but will have to delegate the work

Today, I am able to manage my team well and my overall contribution to my firm has also increased."

Tell us about your experience of presenting technical financial data to people with non-financial backgrounds.

“As an investment banker, I interact with the promoters of the companies who are mostly from non-financial backgrounds on a regular basis. They understand the business and broad financial parameters revenue, growth, top line, bottom line, etc. but when it comes to valuation of the company, it is difficult for them to comprehend how are we deriving that especially when we use methods like DCF, etc. While interacting with them I focus on easy valuation techniques like PE Ratio, EV/EBITDA ratio, EV/Sales ratio, etc. which they are able to understand well.”

What are some of your most significant accomplishments or achievements?

1) I have secured All India Ranks at all the levels of CA and CS.

(i) CA-CPT - AIR 2

(ii) CA-IPCC - AIR 12

(iii) CA-Final - AIR 20

(iv) CS Executive - AIR 5

(v) CS Professional

2) Won 1st prize in CA Students National level Quiz Contest and represented India in the SAFA (an association of accountants of SAARC countries) quiz contest