An Accountant Writes
Vol 1, Issue 3 | March 2026
CA Nithya Aravindakshan
From the Editor's Desk
February was the calm before the storm and March is the storm. March, typically for Indian businesses, means year end closing of the books. Revenue recognition pressures, reconciliations, debtors ageing summaries, expense booking, profit center analysis — the list never ends. Finance folks will be constantly wearing a harried "do-not-disturb-it's-year-closing" look this month.
This newsletter reaches you on the eve of Holi. Happy Holi! May the colours of Holi brighten your life and your business. We are also in eclipse season. We recently had a solar eclipse and are on the cusp of a lunar eclipse. Eclipses are fascinating, don’t you think? I find solar eclipses more dramatic than lunar eclipses. A solar eclipse is unignorable. A routine day and suddenly the sun disappears, total darkness for a few minutes and then magically re-appears. It makes me wonder about the times when science was yet to reach us with its explanation of eclipses – the ancient people would have wondered what changed, where did the sun go? I have heard an ancient lore that believed that a magical snake swallowed up the sun and people would chant together asking the snake to release the sun from its grip. People, businesses and industries also go through eclipses. A brightly shining industry suddenly goes dark, only to re-emerge with equal (if not more) brilliance later. This month’s edition is all about darkness and light. The first story is about Safari and its founder Sudhir Jatia, a man who lived through his own eclipse. And the second story is about an industry that is going through its period of darkness – the Indian IT sector. AI, the transformation catalyst, has arrived and what does it mean for the Indian IT companies? Will they emerge on the other side of the AI revolution – blazing like a brilliant sun or will the magical snake swallow them up whole? Let’s decode.
Food for Thought
What happens when your key employee quits your organisation? A key man’s exit may drastically change the trajectory of a business – even more so, when he starts a competing business in the same space. Do you know that non-compete clauses in employment contracts are largely unenforceable in the courts of law in India, especially after the exit of the employee. Section 27 of the Indian Contract Act considers this kind of clause to be restraint of trade and hence void. This creates a fascinating paradox: if you can’t legally bind a leader, your only real 'moat' is their internal alignment with your vision.
Accounting is all about balance sheets and ratios and yet, we rarely consider the impact of the intangible human capital in our analysis. The bigger question remains - is your balance sheet truly reflecting all your assets?
I would love to hear what resonated with you. Write to me with your thoughts and opinions.
