Article – PMO’s proposal for “India’s Own Big 4” to rival firms like Deloitte, EY, KPMG, and PwC

Jai Siya Ram

What is Being Proposed

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has scheduled a meeting for 23 September 2025 to discuss regulatory reforms aimed at helping domestic audit and consulting firms grow to compete globally.
Key Ministries involved: Corporate Affairs, Finance. The meeting will be chaired by Principal Secretary to the PM, Shaktikanta Das.
The idea is to facilitate homegrown advisory / audit / consulting firms to scale up, compete with global Big 4, reduce excessive dependence on foreign firms, and build Indian “champions” in this sector.

The Big Four’s Indian arms are already growing fast. In FY24, the Indian affiliates of Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG earned ~ ₹38,500–₹38,800 crore combined. They are expected to exceed ₹45,000 crore by FY25. Much of that growth is driven by consulting, government contracts, tech advisory, etc.
Prime Minister Modi has previously expressed the vision of having Indian accounting firms among the “top global players” (e.g. “Big 8” where 4 are Indian) in the audit/advisory field.

Greater self-reliance: More domestic capability in auditing, financial advisory, consulting, reducing over-dependence on foreign firms.
Economic impact: Large consulting contracts, government projects, PSU disinvestments, policy advisory work currently dominated by Big Four — domestic firms winning even part of this could mean large revenue, job growth.
Global competitiveness: If Indian firms scale globally, they could serve clients abroad and possibly win international mandates.
Stronger domestic audit/consulting ecosystem: might improve audit quality, create more credible Indian firms with international reputation.

Credibility & Trust: Big Four firms have long track records globally. Indian firms will need to establish credibility, audit quality, governance, international standards, etc.
Scale: Finding or building firms with enough scale (manpower, financial strength, global network) isn’t easy; many domestic firms are relatively small.
Regulatory inertia: Some reforms require changes in law, regulatory bodies, procurement norms; these are complex and often slow.
Global competition: Even with reforms, Big Four have strong brand advantage, global reach, cross-border experience, and US/EU regulatory approvals etc. Catching up is tough.
Perception & Conflict of Interest: Domestic firms moving into advisory + audit + law + consulting may raise issues of conflicts, regulatory oversight etc. Managing these properly is important.

Meeting scheduled September 23, 2025 in PMO to discuss specific reforms.
The government has floated papers for stakeholder feedback on some reforms (e.g. MDP firms, advertising rules).
ICAI is developing a digital platform to help CA firms explore mergers/tie-ups, which could help consolidate smaller firms.

The actual outcomes of the September 23 meeting: which regulatory changes are approved.
Whether the advertising ban is lifted and MDP structures allowed.
Which firms begin to consolidate or tie up globally.
Whether domestic firms win more major PSU/government contracts instead of foreign Big Four.
Changes in auditing/regulatory agency oversight (NFRA etc) in quality, enforcement, disclosure etc.