"India is a top base for talent"

Mike Wareing, Ceo of KPMG International, visited India for a couple of days in October to get an update on the company’s operations and to meet the firm’s business and technology partners. BT’s Rahul Sachitanand met him and discussed his impressions about the country. Excerpts:

How much has India changed since your first visit five years ago?
India has moved from providing lowcost services to developing much more sophisticated solutions. The low-cost activities, meanwhile, have begun moving to other countries.

What are the challenges for Indian companies going global?
Indian companies are making the transition quite smoothly, even though many of them are coming into the market late. There is a very tough regulatory environment in the West, especially in the US; from a financial reporting point of view, it’s challenging to move from Indian to international and US standards.

How have your India operations shaped up?
Each of the BRIC countries is growing rapidly at 30-50 per cent and India is at the top end of this. India is not just about companies and clients, it is important for our client servicing operations where we leverage the talent base here for services and processes and, of course, we use our employees for technology development.