Can India build its own Big 4?
For decades, India’s consulting and audit sector has been dominated by global giants like Deloitte, PwC, EY, KPMG, Grant Thornton, and BDO. These firms scaled with India’s corporate boom and global market integration. Today, the question is urgent: Can India create its own Big 4 equivalents?
The answer: Yes—but only through deliberate action, not happenstance. India’s window is narrow yet wide open. As the world’s fastest-growing major economy, with robust digital infrastructure, a vibrant startup ecosystem, and unparalleled talent in finance and tech, the groundwork exists. Global scale demands bold shifts in markets, regulation, technology, and talent strategies.
Below is a grounded, realistic blueprint:
India’s economy has exploded in scale, diversity, and formality. Financial reporting, risk management, governance, tax, and digital transformation needs have surged. Corporate India can support multiple billion-dollar services firms.
Other economies prove it: China nurtured ShineWing and Ruihua via local demand; Europe birthed Mazars, BDO, RSM, and Crowe, which built trust domestically before globalizing. India must architect its ecosystem intentionally.
The talent engine already exists, and it’s world-class: India produces the largest pipeline of chartered accountants in the world; one of the largest pools of software engineers; experienced professionals across risk, ESG, cyber, AI and finance transformation. This talent advantage is exactly how TCS, Infosys and Wipro became global IT giants. The same formula can also work in professional services – a hybrid of deep domain expertise, technology and global delivery. The opportunity is not theoretical; it has been proven.
Advisory firms face zero global restrictions – the real growth prize: Audit is heavily jurisdiction-bound and globally regulated, making cross-border scaling slow, complex and subject to regulatory scrutiny. But advisory, transformation, ESG, cyber, reporting, finance operations, analytics and governance consulting face no such constraints. This is why pure-play advisory firms are raising institutional capital globally, spinning out of audit partnerships (including those in the US) and scaling up aggressively. India should double down on finance transformation, risk & governance, digital & cloud, cyber & data, ESG & sustainability, IPO readiness and capital markets advisory. Home-grown firms can scale globally in these streams much faster than in audit.
Technology & AI will decide the winners: Technology and AI will ultimately decide who wins in the next era of professional services. No firm, Indian or global, can truly scale today without being technology-first. Artificial intelligence is no longer a buzzword; it is fundamentally transforming the way organisations manage reporting, strengthen controls, analyse risk, close their books, measure ESG impact and automate compliance. The future of global advisory will be built not just on expertise, but on the intelligent use of new-age technology.
India’s unmatched depth in AI and engineering, proven through innovations such as UPI, ONDC and Aadhaar, gives it a natural edge. A technology-enabled consulting model is not a limitation for India – it’s our biggest differentiator.
Regulatory enablement – the missing piece India must fix. If India wants home-grown global-scale platforms, three shifts are essential:
Allow institutional capital into Indian CA firms: The global shift towards separating audit and consulting practices is poised to redefine the professional services landscape. For India to stay ahead of this curve, it must take bold steps, such as opening the door for external capital to flow into partnerships, enabling scale through modern professional management structures and fostering a more competitive ecosystem that goes beyond traditional partnership models.
Permit true brand-building: Global firms freely advertise and build their brand, while Indian accounting firms still operate under restrictions that limit visibility. To compete fairly, Indian firms need the freedom to present themselves confidently in the market. In a major shift, ICAI is reportedly considering lifting its long-standing restriction on advertising by accounting firms.
Level the playing field in public-sector RFPs: The government is drafting new rules, expected to be implemented by March 2026, to make it easier for Indian audit and consulting firms to compete with global players. This includes easing qualification norms and revisiting public tender rules to enable domestic firms to participate more effectively in government projects. The goal is to level the field, reduce foreign dominance in key mandates, and give home-grown firms a fair chance to scale and succeed.
A credible, scalable audit practice – built for India-first: A credible and scalable audit practice must be built with India at its core. Audit, by its very nature, will remain India-centric, governed by local licensing requirements, strict regulation, and the complexities of global conflict rules. Yet, achieving scale is entirely possible. It will come from domestic firms making bold investments in quality audit, embedding technology across testing, analytics, fraud detection and workflow management, as well as from large corporations choosing to diversify beyond their global networks.
Audit should be India-first. Advisory can be global first: Together, they can form a powerful, scalable platform for the future. A compelling example comes from France, where Mazars achieved significant growth under joint audit mandates. This approach demonstrates how well-designed regulatory incentives can enable local audit firms to scale and compete effectively globally. For India, adopting similar measures could be a game-changer in strengthening its domestic audit landscape.
Making it truly global – the India-to-world playbook: To build the ‘Next Big Four’, India must think global from day one. The playbook is clear: make global delivery a core part of the strategy, deepen sectoral expertise and create technology-led solutions that can compete on the world stage. Indian firms need to harness cross-border talent mobility, establish a strong footprint in key markets such as the US, the Middle East, Europe and Southeast Asia and focus on solving global CFO challenges, rather than just local ones.
The credibility is already there; what India needs now is the orchestration and scale to match its ambition.
The Verdict: Can India Build Its Own Big 4? Absolutely, but only if it chooses ambition over incrementalism. The ingredients are already on the board: a massive market, world-class talent, cutting-edge technology, proven delivery models and an emerging generation of domestic firms. What’s needed now is regulatory modernisation, access to capital and above all, a tech-first mindset. India has already built global giants in technology, such as TCS, Infosys, Wipro, HCL and LTIMindtree. There’s no reason it cannot do the same in consulting and assurance. The question is no longer whether India can build its own Big Four; it’s how fast we choose to make it happen.
The author is co-founder & global head, accounting & reporting consulting, Uniqus Consultech