in short, information technology raises output per hour in the total economy principally by reducing hours worked on activities needed to guard productive processes against the unknown and the unanticipated. narrowing the uncertainties reduces the number of hours required to maintain any given level of production readiness. because knowledge is essentially irreversible, much, if not most, of the recent gains in productivity appear permanent. expanding e - commerce is expected to significantly augment this trend. already major efforts have been announced in the auto industry to move purchasing operations to the internet. similar developments are planned or are in operation in many other industries as well. it appears to be only a matter of time before the internet becomes a prime venue for the trillions of dollars of business - to - business commerce conducted every year. not all technologies, information or otherwise, however, increase productivity - that is, output per hour - by reducing the inputs necessary to produce existing or related products. some new technologies bring about new goods and services with above - average value added per workhour. the dramatic advances in biotechnology, for example, are significantly increasing a broad range of productivity - expanding efforts in areas from agriculture to medicine. indeed, in our dynamic labor markets, the resources made redundant by better information are being drawn to the newer activities and newer products, many never before contemplated. the recent biotech innovations are most especially of this type, particularly the remarkable breadth of medical and pharmacological product development. one less welcome by - product of rapid economic and technological change that needs to be addressed is the insecurity felt by many workers. this stems, i suspect, from fear of job skill obsolescence. despite the tightest labor markets in a generation, for example, more workers currently report in a prominent survey that they are fearful of losing their jobs than was reported in 1991, at the bottom of the last recession. the marked movement of capital from failing technologies to those at the cutting edge has quickened the pace at which job skills become obsolete. the completion of high school used to equip the average worker with sufficient knowledge and skills to last a lifetime. that is no longer true, as evidenced by community colleges being inundated with workers returning to school to acquire new skills and by on - the - job training being expanded and upgraded by a large proportion of american business. it is not enough to create a job market that has enabled those with few skills to finally be able to grasp the first rung of the

k c chakrabarty : introduction of international financial reporting standards ( ifrs ) - issues and challenges speech by dr k c chakrabarty, deputy governor of the reserve bank of india, at the inauguration of a national level seminar on international financial reporting standards ( ifrs ), mumbai, 11 february 2011. * * * dr naresh chandra, principal, birla college, former pro vice chancellor, mumbai university, dr shyam agrawal, eminent eye surgeon, shri m. m. chitale, veteran ca and chairman nacas, shri u. venkataraman, ceo - currency derivatives segment & whole time director, mcx - sx, principal of pdl college of commerce and economics and my dear student dr n. n. pandey, prof d. m. kadhi, convenor, other distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. i am delighted to be present here amongst you all on the occasion of the national level seminar on ifrs. needless to say, it is a very topical area which has been engaging the attention of the standard setters, government authorities and regulatory bodies for quite some time. i shall share with you a few of my thoughts on the issue. reading financial statements let me begin by talking about the most elementary and fundamental area of commerce and accountancy which is “ how to read a financial statement ”. to a lay man, financial statements comprise the balance sheet and profit and loss account. however, the numbers given in these alone do not give the correct picture to the reader unless one carefully goes through the notes to accounts, cash flow statements and qualifications, if any, in the auditor ’ s report and also appreciates the accounting policies followed by the enterprise. in some cases, ratio analysis, trend analysis and an industry peer comparison can be done to obtain a better perspective. a thorough study of all these aspects is required before a user can make an informed decision. the objective of financial statements is to provide information about the financial position, performance and cash flows of an enterprise that is useful to a wide range of users in making economic decisions. corporate financial statements with the notes and narratives surrounding them, are intended to enable investors to predict cash flows, determine returns generated on capital invested, assess the business liquidity, and evaluate management ’ s performance. financial statements are prepared by drawing an artificial line of cut - off at the year end, even though the business continues as a going concern. in many transactions, one leg of