"Besides China, no one can match the scale that India offers"

Romal Shetty, CEO of Deloitte South Asia, says innovations coming out of India are being replicated globally, and the country holds great strategic value for the Big 4 firm

- Siddharth Zarabi

Romal Shetty, 48, the CEO of Deloitte South Asia, says it is an exciting time to be in India for a Big 4 consulting firm as a lot of innovation and transformation is happening in the country that is being replicated worldwide. The team in India constitutes 25% of Deloitte’s global workforce, and Shetty says the firm has big hiring plans. In an interaction with Siddharth Zarabi, Managing Editor of Business Today TV, Shetty talks about the next big sectors in India, AI, and more. Edited excerpts:

Q: You are one of the youngest CEOs in the professional services space. How has the going been so far?

A: Deloitte in India has about 120,000 people, of whom over 28,000 service the local market, while 90,000-plus serve the global markets. So, nearly 25% of the global workforce of Deloitte is in India. The country is a strategic area for Deloitte globally because we support our global clients on transformation programmes from here.

I think this is one of the most exciting times to be in India. At Deloitte, we have significant growth plans for our India business. We plan to hire 40,000-50,000 people over the next four to five years.

Traditionally, global best practices were usually adopted in India. But now a lot of the innovation and transformation happening out of India is being leveraged globally. It is an exciting time, and to have the privilege of leading this firm at a time like this is a Godsent opportunity.

Deloitte in India... has a fairly large economic impact on the regions we operate in. But more importantly, it’s also about the impact that we’re making on our clients across the world.