New Delhi, June 29 -- India's top audit and consulting firms are increasingly expanding beyond the metropolitan hubs, as fast-growing promoter-led companies and small and mid-sized businesses in smaller cities drive demand for their services ranging from tax and succession planning to mergers and acquisitions and digital transformation. The shift is prompting the Big Four-EY, KPMG, PwC and Deloitte-to set up offices and deepen their presence in what they see as the next major growth market.

Cities such as Jaipur, Coimbatore, Mysore, Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Kochi, Chandigarh, Trivandrum and Gandhinagar are emerging as key markets, with businesses looking to professionalize operations, scale through acquisitions and adopt enterprise resou...