Hope ICAI takes inputs before issuing networking rules: Sanjeev Krishan

PwC in India today employs more than 55,000 people across our 12 offices. Our recruitment efforts span the breadth of the country, resulting in a highly diverse team composition, Krishan said

PwC India is committed to fully engage with relevant professional bodies and regulators and hopes that ICAI would take inputs from all relevant stakeholders before coming up with international networking rules, its chairperson Sanjeev Krishan told Raghav Aggarwal in an interview. Edited excerpts here:

What is the current size of the employee pool at PwC India? 

PwC in India today employs more than 55,000 people across our 12 offices. Our recruitment efforts span the breadth of the country, resulting in a highly diverse and enriched team composition. In line with our New Equation strategy ambitions, we have significantly increased our hiring in the past few years. We have partnered with various campuses and institutions to hire fresh talent and have also ramped up our lateral hire across mid and senior levels.

Do you plan to hire more during the current year?

We will continue to hire to meet our growth ambitions.  

In mergers and acquisitions, which are the most active sectors currently?

For the past many years, India has seen significant investments from global corporates and private equity firms alike. As per our recent analysis, the first quarter of 2024 highlights the best figures in the last six quarters owing to the momentum of the market and large-ticket deals, hinting at a bold appetite for strategic expansion and market dominance.

Sector-wise, traditional sectors took the lead, drawing significant investments in the changing deal-making scenario. The media and entertainment sectors topped the charts in terms of value, while the retail and consumer sectors continued to lead in terms of deal volume.  

Which sectors are likely to see a heightened M&A activity in coming months?  

Looking ahead, the three sectors which stand out based on current traction are Technology, Healthcare and Retail & Consumer. There are a few deals in the Renewable Energy and Infrastructure sectors as well. Investment activity has been high across seed capital to growth capital and buyouts.    

Do you see this changing with the emergence of Gen AI?

Large companies need to disrupt and find new ways of doing business. They need core tech / emerging tech thinking embedded in the product or service or the way they do business. I see a lot more M&A activity where these startups that have developed an innovative solution or have built tech layers to enable transformation, getting strategically acquired by large companies.

If not acquisition, we will see strategic investments and collaboration. The software industry, for example, is already at the forefront of technological integration, and will continue to lead the pack. IT services will similarly evolve, offering more sophisticated solutions that streamline business processes and enhance efficiency, staying relevant and critical in the tech ecosystem. The entertainment industry will also look at leveraging Gen AI for disrupting the content creation value chain which is core to their business.

Which sectors could benefit the most from Gen AI?

Gen AI will fundamentally change how business gets done. It will impact how companies grow revenue, conduct everyday operations, engage customers and employees, and build new business models. So that impact is likely to be wide-ranging across several sectors.

Consider this in terms of a 2x2 – with one axis being how regulated the sector is, and the second being whether the applications are for internal or external stakeholders. For unregulated industries, and internal use cases, the experimentation and adoption will be swift. For the regulated industries with external use cases, there are several other considerations such as data residency, data accuracy etc. that must be solved before large-scale adoption.  

Therefore, certain sectors like Energy and Resources, Power and Utilities will see high ease of adoption but a moderate level of disruption. Other sectors like Industrial Manufacturing, Hospitality, Transportation, Software, IT/ITeS and Entertainment & Media are also well positioned to integrate emerging technologies like Gen AI. For Legal and professional services, Healthcare, Pharma segment the complexity and ease of scale adoption of Gen AI will be complex.  

What is your take on ICAI's recent actions?

We have seen the recent orders issued by the Disciplinary Committee of ICAI about one of the Big 4. In this regard, since the matter is sub judice, we are unable to provide any further comments. We have been given to understand through recent media reports that ICAI is currently working on the guidelines on aggregation of domestic CA firms and international networking and would come up with guidelines in the next three months.

We hope that all relevant stakeholders’ input will be taken prior to issuing any such guidelines prospectively. Please note we always remain steadfast in our commitment to constructively engage with relevant professional bodies and regulators and have full faith in our regulatory and judicial process.

What are your projections about PwC India's revenue in the current financial year?

As India's corporate landscape expands both domestically and internationally, fueled by ambitious growth strategies, we have also strategically positioned ourselves to cater to this dynamic market. Our firm has consistently achieved over 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) in recent years, and we remain optimistic about sustained growth prospects in the foreseeable future.

One of the key goals we set under the "new equation strategy" in August 2021 was surpassing the $1-billion revenue mark and we have already exceeded this ahead of schedule.

What are the major factors driving your revenue growth?

In response to invaluable client insights, this fiscal year has seen a strategic recalibration of our market approach. We have cultivated an internal ecosystem fostering heightened collaboration, driven greater focus towards high-impact clientele, and bolstered our domestic focus through targeted sector-specific strategies.

Simultaneously, we have intensified efforts to attract premier lateral talent and implemented a structured approach to capitalise on India's captive opportunities, resulting in a robust pipeline. We are making investments in our capabilities to address contemporary business challenges such as technological integration for enhanced outcomes, supply chain disruptions, data security, and climate-related concerns.