India plans indigenous Big Four! PMO to examine regulatory changes; Indian audit firms prepare for international reach

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) is set to convene a meeting on September 23 to examine regulatory reforms and other measures that could help Indian audit and consultancy firms expand and compete with the Big Four on a global scale, according to sources.

As reported by The Economic Times, the meeting will be chaired by Shaktikanta Das, the Prime Minister’s principal secretary, and will also involve senior officials from the PMO along with representatives from the finance and corporate affairs ministries.

Das is expected to take stock of developments since his June review on strategies to promote homegrown firms capable of securing a portion of the $240-billion global audit and consultancy industry.

The discussion follows a request from the corporate affairs ministry seeking stakeholder feedback on the idea of multidisciplinary firms—where chartered accountants, lawyers, company secretaries, and actuaries could operate under a single umbrella. Presently, such partnerships are restricted under existing regulations.

India’s audit sector remains largely dominated by the Big Four—EY, Deloitte, KPMG, and PwC—along with firms like Grant Thornton and BDO. As of March 2025, their affiliates collectively handled assignments for 326 of the 486 Nifty-500 companies, generating estimated revenues of over ₹45,000 crore in the last fiscal year, as per data from primeinfobase.com.

Since 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has consistently advocated for building at least four large Indian firms that could secure a place among the world’s top eight. A corporate affairs ministry note cited by ET pointed out that achieving this requires tackling several hurdles, such as limits on advertising, overlapping licensing requirements from multiple regulators, restrictions in public procurement, and limited avenues for global partnerships.

To encourage scaling up, the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has cleared a draft regulatory framework that would allow Indian firms to collaborate with international counterparts. The move is aimed at enabling domestic players to compete globally while attracting investment and talent.