Panel may be set up for creating India’s ‘Big Four’

The government may set up a panel under corporate affairs secretary Deepti Gaur Mukerjee to prepare a framework to build an “enabling ecosystem” to create large home-grown chartered accountancy (CA) firms comparable to the ‘Big Four,’ people familiar with the develop-ment said. The plan follows a meeting by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Friday to deliberate on creating a system where CA firms would be encouraged to pursue expansion and growth, they said.

The meeting was chaired by Shaktikanta Das, Principal secretary-2 to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and attended by senior officials from the PMO and the corporate affairs ministry, among others.

The planned panel will likely suggest changes required to the extant policy and regulatory frameworks to enable small firms to scale up through both local and global tie-ups, the people said. It could also review im-pediments currently discouraging firms to grow in size.

Currently, the Big Four-EY, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC-along with Grant Thornton and BDO domina-te the Indian audit ecosystem.

“With policy support, regulatory momentum, and entrepreneurial drive, it is realistic that India could produce its own Big 4 in this decade itself,” said Rakesh Nangia, founder & managing partner at Nangia & Co LLP.

Publication – CNBC TV18

By Rakesh Nangia