Roshan Mansoor, a qualified Chartered Accountant and having certified in Mergers & Acquisitions from The Wharton School (University of Pennsylvania) is a Managing Partner of a Bangalore-based CA firm ‘Roshan Mansoor and Co’ (RM&Co). Before starting the firm, he worked with Big4 consulting firm “Pricewaterhouse Coopers Pvt Ltd”. In just 10 years of profession, RM&Co is a 30 member team specialized in Mergers & Acquisitions and part of Large Tax Litigations. Bold and outspoken, Roshan in talks with Jawed Khurshid over a cup of filter Coffee which he loves to drink as he is originally from the Coffee Town of Karnataka – Chikmagalur.

 How do you see the overall economy of India?

The overall economy projects a mixed picture – The beneficiaries remain mostly the upper middle class as well as the rich people. To be precise, it is the upper middle class and the rich who availed the maximum benefits of the economic policies of the current regime. As far as middle class and lower middle class people are concerned, they are mercilessly hit by the inflation and have hardly any savings to make due to inflation. Over the period of time, things will improve as the policies have ingredients that would stem the rot caused by high inflation. Thus there’s no need to be despondent.

 At times, the news of global recession haunts us. Is there any iota of truth in this?

Yes, absolutely it’s looming around because it’s not only the start-ups that are laying off the employees. Rather the big multinationals, like Google, Sap labs,  Microsoft, etc too are laying off people. It’s less demand that’s tormenting which forces them to retrench the employee size and to cut cost. This is the first sign of recession. As far as startups are concerned, they’ve seen the trend in the last six months, lots of venture capitalists, private equity and hedge fund guys have really reduced their outlay of investment in India too.  Globally the situation is turning Challenging but India being predominantly an agrarian, New age tech economy, New Manufacturing Set ups benefited under PLI schemes of Government would sustain the shock caused due to global recessionary tendencies.

 How would this affect the stability of our market, considering the worst scenario?

Indian market would be much more stable in stark contrast to the European and American markets as it’s already seen. We aren’t a credit driven market, we are still a very conservative saving oriented market. Due to a sheer size of population, we have a huge domestic demand that offsets the impact of recession to a great extent. Unlike Europe and other western economies, Indian retail production wouldn’t suffer much due to enormous demands. Global majors are moving their production/Manufacturing set ups to India post covid and Indian Government is encouraging the same under Make in India schemes and initiatives.

Roshan Mansoor

 The government never tires of flaunting issues related to making India a five-trillion dollar economy. Is this a mere hyperbole or reflects conviction on part of the government?

Two things define the statement ..  I think Indian government is positive when it claims the aforementioned ‘five-trillion dollar economy’ statement. It’s definitely not merely a hyperbole rather a deep conviction is felt due to policies of the government.  The Indian fiscal system is robust and could thwart any negative fiscal tendency. Western economy and fiscal system are in utterly bad shape compared to India. Thus we’re on the positive side of the spectrum.

 The union government has almost completed two years in power. During this period only those who worked in the legal framework got benefitted. What are the benefits of working in a legal framework?

Professionals who are in Legal frameworks have largely benefitted on India Story. VC’s, Private Equity firms, Family fund houses investing in New age Tech startups, Companies who are in EV space, Infrastructure companies have engaged Law firms, Chartered Accountancy firm and  other experts in the similar fields to assists in their investments and large part of advisory & consulting business.

Introduction of GST and subsequent changes in compliance and laws have been helping professionals and Demonetization too benefitted us as many people thronged the accountants’ firms to resolve the thorny financial and legal adjunct.

How could Muslims avail the financial opportunity in the present circumstances?

Muslims too could avail of the benefits of the policies floated by the central and state governments. There are funds for minorities and their economic upliftment. Muslims should come out from their self-created cocoon and join the mainstream.

There are a plethora of Muslim habitations across the country that reel through worst poverty, such as Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and similar places elsewhere where the awareness viz a viz such policies need to be carried out with religious zeal. . Due to favourable policies of the government, this is an opportune moment to learn the tricks of the trade and start the work.

Entrepreneurial activity has percolated through every sphere of human Endeavor.  But Indian Muslims are, literally speaking, least benefited due to their conservative thinking. For a long time, they were told not to tread the so-called ‘proscribed’ path. But currently many organizations in the community have taken the responsibility to educate them and teach them the skill to start their own small venture and educate on schemes which are available for business in India.

Religious teachings don’t exclude modern education and commerce. It’s a painful irony that most of us think that religion is solely restricted to morality and prayers, but the fact is that the Islamic teachings include trade, commerce, modern education, and also guides the faithful in multifarious ways to develop scientific temperament.