| COVER
STORY Beyond
Environmental Accounting :The Triple Bottom Line Approach
- - Bibhuti B Pradhan and Sanjib Pattnaik
This
article explores the advancement of the concept of corporate responsibility and
a continuation of the discussion on Triple Bottom Line (TBL) as an approach in
achieving corporate sustainability. It presents the path to sustainability that
firms look for and work out strategies to guarantee financial success, while at
the same time managing its environmental and social responsibilities. The notion
of sustainability has grown to encompass economic, environmental and social dimensions.
Today, the primary concern of many organizational managers is how to bring together
these fundamental, yet seemingly disparate, pillars of sustainability together
to form the integrated `TBL' of economic, environmental and social performance.
Ultimately, this article seeks to find a new set of management strategies and
tools through TBL approach for managing and balancing corporate responsibility.
© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved
ACCOUNTING
STANDARDS Harmonization
: Changing Scenario of Accounting and Reporting
- - Pradeep Kumar Singh This
article tries to explain the concept of harmonization and its need in accounting
and reporting, international practices, impact of reforms and globalization on
harmonization and reporting, impact of International Accounting Standards (IAS)
on Indian accounting and reporting, reason for delay in adoption of IAS in Indian
accounting and reporting and what are the various obstacles encountered in the
process of harmonization and reporting of practices; and finally offers some suggestions
for better harmonization and financial reporting.
© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved
FINANCIAL
REPORTING Extensible
Business : Reporting Language
- - S Vijayalakshmi and Anamika Bajpai This
article presents the history of XBRL and the need to address common problems in
the area of finance and its mechanism in the process of reporting. Nowadays, freely
available on the net is an electronic language for financial reporting called
eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) [previously called XFRML]. As the
name suggests, It is an eXtensible Markup Language (XML)-based framework that
provides the financial community with a standards-based method to prepare and
publish in a variety of formats, reliably extract and automatically exchange financial
statements of publicly held companies and the information they contain.
© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved
FINANCIAL
REPORTING Europe's
Transition to IFRS : The Effect of Europe's Transition to IFRS
- - Zwi Y Sacho
This article examines whether the transition to IFRS in Europe has had a positive
effect on improving the reliability and usefulness of financial statements.
© 2006 Zwi Sacho. This article first appeared in the November 2006 issue of Accountancy
SA (www.accountancysa.org.za), a South African Institute of Chartered Accountants
(SAICA) publication. Reprinted with permission. FORENSIC
ACCOUNTING Forensic
Accounting and Auditing : Perspectives and Prospects
- - Madan Lal Bhasin
With
widespread financial scams in the corporate and banking sectors, the importance
of forensic accounting and auditing has significantly increased. Forensic accounting,
in fact, utilizes accounting, auditing and investigative `skills' to conduct an
examination into a company's financial statements. Forensic accountants investigate
and document financial fraud and white-collar crimes. They also provide litigation
support to attorneys and law enforcement agencies investigating financial wrongdoing.
Forensic accountants are being engaged in public practice or employed by insurance
companies, banks, police forces, government agencies and other organizations.
This article advocates the appreciation and consideration of forensic accounting
and auditing as a specialized field in the accountancy profession. Indeed, there
is a future in forensic accounting and auditing as a separate niche consulting.
© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved
TECHNOLOGY
Digital
Records Management : What Auditors Should Know
- - Raquel Filipek
As
companies continue to decrease their dependence on paper records, internal auditors
need to stay ahead of the game by understanding the necessary ingredients to an
effective digital records management program.
© 2006 The Institute of Internal Auditors. Originally published in ITAudit, Volume
9, October 10, 2006, by The Institute of Internal Auditors Inc. (www.theiia.org/itaudit).
Reprinted with permission. RESEARCH
PAPER Accounting
Standards, Practices and Disclosure Policies in India : An Empirical Study
- - Sanjay J Bhayani
The
importance of accounting standards and disclosure policies related to notes on
accounts thereon constitute one significant aspect of the overall accounting disclosure.
Considering the global environment and continuous investment by FIIs in Indian
industries and increase in the number of MNCs require to pay the attention to
the AS and its disclosure policies from the stakeholders point of view. The prime
objective of this study is to assess the level of implementation of AS by the
Indian corporate units. For this purpose, the implementation of first AS 15 has
been analyzed from reports of 2004-05 by the companies listed as BSE 30 indices
companies on Bombay Stock Exchange; of them 15 companies are taken as random sample
for the study. The results of the study indicate that there is a need for an improvement
in disclosure policies of the Indian corporate.
© 2007 IUP . All Rights Reserved
SPEECH
Speech
by SEC Staff
- - Mary Ann Gadziala
In
this speech, Mary Ann Gadziala, while addressing cross-border regulatory perspectives
with regard to the international environment, discusses three specific areas of
significancenamely, consolidated supervised entities, business continuity planning,
and complex structured finance transactions.
© 2006 US Securities and Exchange Commission (www.sec.gov). Speech by Mary Ann
Gadziala, Associate Director, Office of Compliance Inspections and Examinations,
US Securities and Exchange Commission, delivered on October 31, 2006 in New York,
USA. Reprinted with permission. | 
