India’s Big 4? Prime Minister’s Office holds meeting to push domestic firms

• As per MoneyControl on 6 June 2025, the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) held a high-level meeting.
• Agenda: To explore “how” India can create its version of the Big Four — think Indian firms in the league of Deloitte, PwC, EY, and KPMG.
• The outcome? Form a dedicated panel under Corporate Affairs Secretary Deepti Gaur Mukerjee.
• Mission: Create an ecosystem that helps Indian CA firms scale, merge, and go global.

What’s happening in the meeting?

The meeting was chaired by Shaktikanta Das (Principal Secretary to the PM).

Sanjeev Sanyal (member of the Economic Advisory Council to the PM) presented a plan on how India could go about building these consulting powerhouses.

Also in the room: Secretaries from

• Economic Affairs (Ajay Seth)
• Corporate Affairs (Deepti Mukherjee)
• Revenue (Arvind Shrivastava)
• Financial Services (M. Nagaraju)

Result?

Following the high-level PMO meeting the government is likely to form a dedicated panel under Corporate Affairs Secretary Deepti Gaur Mukerjee.

The panel, once constituted, is expected to submit a detailed roadmap that includes:

• Revisiting partnership rules and audit regulations

• Facilitating M&A and consolidation among mid-sized Indian CA firms

• Creating incentives for firms to go global

• Enhancing skill development and quality control benchmarks to match international standards

What does this mean?

If India does push forward with this idea, it could reshape the entire professional services industry in the country.

Homegrown firms could:

• Compete for large-scale government projects
• Build global credibility
• Offer serious competition to the current Big Four
• Create high-value jobs in India, especially in Tier 1 and 2 cities

Why now?

Next phase of Atmanirbhar Bharat: After UPI and Make-in-India, the focus is shifting to high-end services like consulting.

At the heart of the reform is the desire to reduce India’s heavy reliance on foreign audit firms.

Untapped talent, no global brand: India has the talent. But no Indian firm is among the global elite.

Growing economy, rising demand: India is the world’s fastest-growing major economy. As public and private sector projects scale, so does the demand for top-tier consulting.

PM Modi’s longstanding vision: This renewed push aligns with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s 2017 vision for India to develop“four Indian accounting firms that will become part of the world’s Big Eight.”

According to recent data, the Big Four and a few others like Grant Thornton and BDO collectively audited over 67% of Nifty-500 companies as of March 2025.

Big 4 firms in India are seeing “double-digit growth” compared to its global teams that are seeing 4-5% growth!

In India, the Big 4s clocked ₹38,800 crore in revenue in FY24 and are expected to surpass ₹45,000 crore in FY25.

Wrapping Up…

ICAI— India’s statutory body regulating the chartered accountancy profession—has publicly committed to this vision.

It has been encouraging large Indian CA firms to:

• Scale up
• Merge: In 2023 ICAI has also revised its guidelines on the merger and demerger of CA firms, making it easier for firms to consolidate and scale.
• Compete internationally: In early June 2025, ICAI approved a draft regulatory International Partnership Framework that could transform how domestic CA firms scale! 

Recent ICAI President CA Charanjot Singh Nanda told the Deccan Herald that:

“ICAI has set up the Committee for Aggregation of CA Firms (CACAF) to help Indian firms scale through consolidation.”