The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) recently convened a high-level meeting to explore the creation of large Indian advisory firms capable of competing with the global Big Four — EY, KPMG, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Deloitte. Chaired by Shaktikanta Das, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, the meeting was attended by senior officials from key economic ministries and the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council. The agenda focused on identifying and removing barriers for Indian Chartered Accountancy (CA) and advisory firms, with the goal of enabling them to scale up and compete internationally.
While the vision has been widely welcomed as a step toward strengthening India’s consultancy ecosystem, several industry experts have raised concerns about the entrenched dominance of the existing global Big Four firms in India’s public sector consultancy space. These multinational firms entered the Indian market as audit companies but have since expanded their footprint into large-scale consultancy and advisory roles, including as Project Management Units (PMUs) for central and state government initiatives.
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Critics point to past controversies involving these firms, including their role in the Satyam scandal, questioning their governance track record. Despite this history, the Big Four continue to secure a majority of high-value government consultancy contracts. Industry insiders allege that one key reason lies in the structuring of tender eligibility criteria — particularly turnover requirements. In some instances, consultancy projects worth around ₹50 lakh have reportedly included turnover thresholds as high as ₹100 crore, effectively sidelining technically qualified Indian firms that lack the scale to meet such conditions.
“India already has several capable domestic consultancy firms delivering top-class work,” said one industry veteran. “But they are being locked out of the competition due to artificially high entry barriers set in the tenders, often influenced by the very global firms that benefit from them.”
Observers argue that the problem is compounded when these global players operate as PMUs, granting them access to sensitive government project information and potentially giving them an unfair advantage in related bids. This has raised questions about competitive neutrality, transparency, and information security in public procurement.
The PMO’s initiative aims to counter the dominance of global firms by fostering the growth of Indian advisory companies into globally competitive players. Experts say this would require not just capacity building but also reforming regulatory and procurement frameworks. The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI) has recently moved in this direction by approving draft guidelines to create a more enabling environment for domestic CA firms.
However, stakeholders stress that for the government’s vision to succeed, immediate steps must be taken to review and rationalize tender qualification norms, especially turnover requirements, and ensure equitable opportunities for local firms. Without such reforms, the goal of building ‘India’s Big Four’ may remain aspirational, and domestic firms may continue to face an uneven playing field in their own country.
