The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is moving toward a significant regulatory reset that could reshape the structure of the country's accounting profession, with proposed changes to the Chartered Accountants Act intended to help Indian firms grow larger and compete more effectively with global rivals.
The initiative, which is expected to be taken up soon, comes amid a broader policy push to strengthen domestic professional services and create firms with the scale, depth and cross-disciplinary capability needed to serve large Indian companies as well as multinational clients. According to the context under discussion, the Prime Minister's Office has already examined regulatory adjustments that could make it easier for Indian firms to expand, collaborate and operate at a larger scale.
Scale Before Fragmentation
At the heart of the proposed changes is a long-standing structural issue in India's accounting market: the profession remains highly fragmented, with many firms operating as small partnerships rather than large integrated entities. That model has served the market for decades, but it has also limited the ability of domestic firms to bid for complex assignments, invest in technology, build sector-specialist teams and compete with the global networks that dominate audits and advisory work for large corporations.
The ICAI's expected proposal is aimed at addressing precisely that gap. By revisiting the legal framework under the CA Act, the institute is looking to create room for broader collaboration among firms and practitioners, while also updating networking and practice rules that currently constrain consolidation. The objective is not merely to increase firm size for its own sake, but to allow Indian professional entities to become more capable, more resilient and more relevant in a market that increasingly rewards scale.
For the automotive, EV and mobility sector, the implications could be material. These industries are capital-intensive, regulation-heavy and increasingly global in their supply chains, financing structures and compliance requirements. Larger accounting firms with deeper technical benches could be better positioned to support listed automakers, EV startups, component suppliers and mobility platforms that need audit, tax, transaction and advisory services across jurisdictions.
Regulatory Reset Ahead
The proposed changes are also part of a wider conversation about how India's professional services ecosystem can be made more globally competitive without compromising quality or independence. The ICAI's move suggests that policymakers and regulators are increasingly aware that the current framework may be too restrictive for firms that want to grow beyond a small or mid-sized practice model.
Revising networking and practice guidelines could open the door to more structured collaboration among firms, allowing them to pool expertise, share resources and offer a broader suite of services. In practical terms, that could help Indian firms build the kind of institutional depth that global clients expect, particularly in sectors where compliance, ESG reporting, cross-border taxation and capital-market transactions are becoming more complex.
The challenge, however, will be to balance scale with professional standards. Any relaxation of rules will likely need to preserve audit independence, ethical safeguards and accountability, especially in a market where trust remains central to the profession. The ICAI will therefore have to navigate a careful line: enabling growth without diluting the credibility that underpins the chartered accountancy designation.
Bigger Firms, Bigger Ambitions
If implemented, the changes could mark one of the most consequential shifts in India's accounting landscape in years. They would signal a policy preference for larger, more capable domestic firms that can retain more value within the country rather than ceding complex work to international networks.
That ambition aligns with India's broader economic strategy of building domestic champions across sectors, from manufacturing to financial services. In the professional services space, the logic is straightforward: larger firms can invest more in technology, training and sector expertise, and can compete more effectively for mandates tied to India's expanding corporate and capital markets.
For the mobility economy, where electrification, software integration and supply-chain localisation are changing business models quickly, the demand for sophisticated advisory support is likely to rise. The ICAI's proposed overhaul could therefore have effects well beyond the profession itself, influencing how Indian companies access high-end financial and compliance services as they scale.
The next step will be the formal shape of the ICAI's proposal and how far it goes in reworking the legal and regulatory architecture around firm formation, networking and practice. But the direction is clear: India is preparing to rethink one of the profession's oldest constraints in pursuit of larger, stronger and more globally competitive accounting firms.