New Delhi, Aug. 20 -- India's government consulting tenders have long favoured firms with deep pockets, large workforces and broad credentials.

A procurement framework issued by the Department of Expenditure (DoE) on 22 July and now in force could change that, shifting the focus towards which firm and team are best equipped to solve the problem at hand.

That could give specialized domestic firms a better shot at government mandates against global giants such as Deloitte, PwC, EY and KPMG. But the framework does not remove scale-based criteria, and its impact will depend on how ministries apply it in individual tenders.

Government tenders have traditionally used annual turnover, employee strength and past experience to judge whether a c...