Thank you very much for inviting me to speak here in India. I am honored to be in the land of Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore, Amartya Sen, Mira Nair, Gayatri Spivak, and so many other great leaders and thinkers. Your intellectual traditions and scientific achievements, including those in mathematics, astronomy, linguistics, and medicine are remarkable and I admire your country for its support of democratic ideals. The American writer Mark Twain has called India "the cradle of the human race, the birthplace of human speech, the mother of history, the grandmother of legend, and the great grand mother of tradition."
As the largest democracy in the world, your struggles and your triumphs are an inspiration for other countries not only in your region but around the world. Your country has made much progress toward economic liberalization and global integration, and I believe that the accountancy profession has played and will continue to play a key role in these processes.
The International Federation of Accountants is proud to count the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) among its 155 members. As a founding member of IFAC, you have demonstrated a long-term commitment to the international accountancy profession and its role in protecting the public interest.