PwC touts India as strategic growth hub, investing in the country’s tech and talent

PwC Analyst Day 2024, held in Gurugram on May 9, underscored India's burgeoning potential as a growth market, key sectors that will drive this upward trajectory and the role of PwC in being integral  to this journey. At the day-long event, leaders from PwC India, as well as around the PwC network, spoke to a host of business, technology and industry analysts worldwide, sharing insights into what they see as key drivers of this human-led tech-enabled growth.

Technology Business Research Inc, an independent technology market research and consulting firm has published a special report on PwC’s India Analyst Day.  

In the report, Principal Analyst, Patrick Heffernan discusses his views on PwC based upon a day of client stories, PwC briefings and informal discussions in the firm’s Gurgaon Experience Center (EC).  Over the course of the day, TBR met with PwC clients from across India and with the firm’s India and global leaders, as well as PwC partners and professionals responsible for client accounts in India.

According to TBR, “Consensus among presenters and attendees that India will be a massive growth market for PwC over the next few years underscored every aspect of the early May event. A shared assumption among the analysts and PwC leaders and professionals, based on the presentations and numerous sidebar conversations, was that today’s investments in India-based talent and technologies will be considered, in 10 years, to have been foundational and strategic for PwC.”

TBR goes on to say “The GenAI discussions during the event provided a continuation of PwC’s strategy and story from the last few years, including the firm’s emphasis on people (skills) and client needs (not just related to the technology). The new elements in May 2024 were PwC’s close alignment with the government of India’s GenAI strategy and the firm’s responsiveness to the realities of the Indian market.”

The event showcased the evolving role of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India and how PwC is facilitating the shifting value proposition of GCCs from cost savings to capabilities expansion to innovation and enabling growth. PwC India has focused on its alignment with the Indian government’s desire to diversify GCCs beyond traditional IT services into engineering and innovation. Discussions about Generative AI (GenAI) were also held during the event, highlighting PwC’s “people-first strategy” for AI implementation. The session also underscored the firm’s commitment to investing in talent to create the GenAI-enabled solutions that clients want and to bring in the right expertise to satisfy a client's objectives that go beyond technology. 

Arnab Basu, Advisory Leader and Partner, PwC India, highlighted the Indian economy’s push for development and the conducive environment it provides for companies to experiment and grow. “The Indian economy has spurred the development of more dynamic, large, multinational Indian companies who are willing to reinvent their ways of doing business and become globally relevant.” He added that PwC is focused on three key areas that will continue to see an upward trend. First, Global Capability Centres (GCCs) will continue to be a value driver for stakeholders, both in the quantity as well as complexity of work undertaken by them. The second area that is essential to drive this quantum of growth is getting the right environment and platform ecosystem, which is enabled by building a strong alliance network. PwC India is committed to strengthening its offerings through alliances, to create and embed new value for clients. The third avenue is the right kind of investments - in people, leadership pipeline and emerging technologies.

The event featured eight diverse client use cases, demonstrating PwC’s extensive consulting capabilities. As per the TBR report, clients noted “PwC for its cultural fit, technological expertise, and partnership approach”. They also noted PwC's “hunger for partnership” and the firm’s “cultural match, speed, and technology capabilities” as key reasons for their collaboration. TBR observed the market’s enthusiasm to collaborate with PwC in India - “PwC is believed by its clients and own staff to be the firm that gets the job done."

Click here to read the report