Become a GST Practitioner.

A Tax Auditor conducts statutory audits mandated under Section 44AB of the Income Tax Act, 1961 — an examination of books of accounts for businesses crossing the turnover threshold (₹1Cr for most businesses, ₹2Cr for those opting for presumptive taxation under 44AD, ₹10Cr for businesses with 95%+ digital transactions) and professionals crossing ₹50L gross receipts. The deliverable is Form 3CA/3CB (the audit report) and Form 3CD (a 44-clause statement covering everything from related-party transactions to deferred revenue expenditure). In India, only ICAI-empaneled Chartered Accountants can issue Form 3CA/3CB — the role is a statutory monopoly. Work is concentrated at Big-4 India tax practices (EY, Deloitte, KPMG, PwC), mid-tier firms (Grant Thornton Bharat, BDO, Nexdigm, SR Batliboi affiliates), and thousands of mid-to-small CA firms across tier-1 and tier-2 cities that together handle the long tail of SME tax audits. The busy season runs July–September each year, when the 30 September due date compresses months of audit work into weeks.

Risk Analysts measure and price the chance that something goes wrong on a bank's or insurer's balance sheet — borrowers defaulting (credit risk), markets moving against open positions (market risk), or operational failures like fraud, system outages, and KYC breaches (operational risk). They build statistical models — PD/LGD/EAD for credit, VaR and Expected Shortfall for market, scorecards for retail portfolios, capital models for ICAAP — and translate model output into limits, provisions, and capital requirements. In India, Risk Analysts sit inside private banks (HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank, Kotak), public-sector banks (SBI, PNB), insurers (HDFC Life, ICICI Prudential, Bajaj Allianz), AMCs (Nippon, HDFC AMC), and the central bank itself (RBI's Department of Supervision and DEPR). The FRM (Financial Risk Manager) credential is the dominant signal alongside CFA — RBI Basel III norms, IRDAI risk-based capital, and SEBI mutual-fund risk frameworks make formally-credentialed risk talent scarce and well-paid.

A sell-side Research Analyst publishes equity research — initiation reports, earnings updates, and sector thematic notes — on listed companies for institutional clients (FIIs, domestic mutual funds, insurance AMCs, and hedge funds) via their brokerage's distribution network. In India the role lives at three tiers: domestic brokers with full-service research desks (Kotak Institutional Equities, Motilal Oswal Institutional Equities, JM Financial, Axis Capital, Nuvama Institutional, ICICI Securities Institutional Equities); regional desks of foreign brokerages (Jefferies India, Macquarie India, Morgan Stanley India, JP Morgan India, CLSA, Bernstein); and KPO research-support arms that feed onshore desks. Compensation is procyclical — base is a fraction of total; bonus ties directly to broker-commission revenue generated by the analyst's coverage and to their ranking in the Institutional Investor (II) Asia / Asiamoney sell-side polls, which are voted on annually by buy-side PMs. SEBI Research Analyst Regulations 2014 require all Indian sell-side analysts to register as NISM Series-XV certified Research Analysts before publishing or co-signing any report.

Business Analysts in financial services are the bridge between business stakeholders and technology / operations teams — they gather requirements, document AS-IS and TO-BE processes, write functional specifications, run UAT, and drive change-management for projects ranging from core-banking upgrades to RBI / SEBI compliance rollouts to GST automation and digital-onboarding programmes. Distinct from a Data Analyst (who works with numbers and dashboards), the Business Analyst is process-led: they sit in workshops, run JAD sessions, write BRDs and FRDs, and shepherd projects through approval gates. In India this role is concentrated at the BFSI verticals of TCS, Infosys (Finacle, Finacle Digital), Wipro, Cognizant, Capgemini, Tech Mahindra, and at the Big-4 advisory practices (Deloitte, EY, KPMG, PwC) — supporting projects at HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, SBI, Axis Bank, NSE, BSE, depositories, AMCs, and global banks' India captives. The career ladder runs Associate BA → BA → Senior BA → Lead / Principal BA → Practice Head / Engagement Manager.

Treasury Analysts manage the cash, foreign-exchange, and debt position of a corporate or bank — making sure the company has enough liquidity to operate, hedging exposure to currency and interest-rate moves, raising debt at the lowest cost, parking surpluses safely, and maintaining bank relationships across India and offshore. The work blends short-term operational rigour (daily cash position, NEFT / RTGS sweeps, intercompany funding) with structural finance decisions (₹500-Cr bond issuance, ECB drawdowns, USD-INR forwards, working-capital lines, commercial paper). In India, treasury is the highest-stakes finance function at large conglomerates — Tata Group, Reliance, Aditya Birla, Adani, Mahindra, JSW, Vedanta — and at the treasury desks of HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank, Axis, SBI, and the global capability centres of US / EU banks (Goldman Sachs Bengaluru, JPMorgan Mumbai, Bank of America Continuum). The career runs Treasury Analyst → Senior Analyst / Manager → Senior Manager / AVP → Head of Treasury / Treasurer, with very few seats at the top — most large Indian companies have only 1-3 Senior Treasury Manager roles and one Treasurer / Head of Treasury seat.

Anti-Money Laundering Analysts investigate suspicious financial activity to prevent criminal funds from entering the formal banking system. The role centres on reviewing alerts generated by transaction monitoring systems (Actimize, SAS AML, Tookitaki), conducting Enhanced Due Diligence (EDD) on high-risk customers, screening transactions and counterparties against OFAC, UN, and MHA sanctions lists, and drafting Suspicious Transaction Reports (STRs) filed with the Financial Intelligence Unit — India (FIU-IND) under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, 2002 (PMLA). In India, AML analysts work inside the compliance teams of scheduled commercial banks (HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak, Standard Chartered, JPMorgan, Citi), Big-4 forensic advisory practices (KPMG Forensic, EY FIDS, PwC Forensics), and the fast-growing KPO/GCC segment (Genpact, EXL, WNS) servicing global financial institutions remotely from Gurugram, Bengaluru, and Mumbai.

Indian Railway Engineers keep the world's fourth-largest rail network moving — 1.4 crore passengers and 3.3 million tonnes of freight daily across 68,000 route-km. The role splits into two entry ladders: Group C (Junior Engineer / Section Engineer via RRB JE/SSC) handling track patrolling, loco maintenance, signal cabin ops, and station works; and the elite Group A officer cadre (IRSEE, IRSME, IRSE, IRSSE via UPSC ESE) commanding Divisions as Assistant/Divisional/Senior Divisional Engineers. Four disciplines — Civil (track, bridges, tunnels, stations), Mechanical (locos, coaches, wagons at Loco/Carriage & Wagon sheds), Electrical (OHE, substations, traction), and Signal & Telecom (interlocking, ATP systems, optical fibre) — each have a parallel promotion ladder ending at General Manager and Railway Board Member. The job is physically demanding, acutely safety-critical, and comes with permanent housing in Railway colonies from day one.

Senior: ₹24.0L

A Loan Officer originates, underwrites, and sanctions retail and MSME loans across PSU banks (SBI, PNB, Canara, Bank of Baroda, Union Bank, Indian Bank), private banks (HDFC, ICICI, Axis, Kotak, IndusInd, Yes, IDFC FIRST), NBFCs (Bajaj Finance, Tata Capital, L&T Finance, Mahindra Finance), and fintech lenders (LazyPay, Paytm Postpaid, Cred). Product scope spans home loans, personal loans, auto loans, two-wheeler loans, business loans, Kisan Credit Cards, MSME term loans, and gold loans. Day to day means interviewing borrowers, pulling CIBIL and Experian credit reports, verifying income documents (ITR, Form 16, salary slips, GST returns), appraising property under Sec 50C, calculating Debt-to-Income ratios, and recommending credit decisions within sanctioning authority. India's total outstanding bank credit crossed ₹175 lakh crore in 2025, and the push into underpenetrated markets (affordable housing under PMAY, MSME under Mudra Yojana, agri-credit under KCC) means loan officer headcount is a structural growth story in both PSU and private bank channels. Entry is via banking-sector hire at graduation level or from Banking PO pool; Certified Credit Professional (CCP) and JAIIB/CAIIB are the in-career credentials that unlock promotions.

Senior: N/A

Claims adjusters in India investigate, adjudicate, and settle motor, health, and property claims for general insurers such as ICICI Lombard, Bajaj Allianz, HDFC Ergo, New India Assurance, and Oriental Insurance. In health, the role often sits inside a Third Party Administrator (TPA) — Medi Assist, Health India TPA, MDIndia, Paramount Health — where the adjuster decides cashless pre-authorisations and reimbursement payouts against policy terms, PED waiting periods, deductibles, and co-pay clauses. For motor and property claims above the IRDAI threshold (currently ₹1 lakh for motor, ₹3 lakh for property), a licensed IRDAI Surveyor and Loss Assessor (Category A, B, or C) must be appointed; claims adjusters either hold this licence themselves or coordinate closely with panel surveyors. The work is a daily mix of intake verification, field inspection, policy interpretation, fraud red-flagging, and settlement negotiation — with customer communication running throughout and BNSS evidentiary standards applying when disputed claims proceed to consumer court.

Senior: N/A

Solar Panel Installers in India design, mount, wire, and commission photovoltaic systems on residential rooftops, commercial buildings, industrial facilities, and utility-scale ground-mounted farms. The entry path is an MNRE Suryamitra certificate (600-hour residential programme at NISE Gurugram or a state-empanelled training centre) or the equivalent Skill Council for Green Jobs (SCGJ) NQF Level 4 qualification; most installers come from an ITI Electrician or Wireman background. Work spans three distinct segments: (1) rooftop solar under PM Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana and PM-KUSUM — 3-10 kW residential + farm-pump systems, net-metered with DISCOMs like BESCOM, MSEDCL, TANGEDCO, DHBVNL; (2) commercial and industrial (C&I) rooftop from 25 kW to 1 MW, installed by EPC contractors such as Tata Power Solar, Adani Solar, Waaree Energies, Vikram Solar, and Jakson Power; and (3) utility-scale ground-mounted projects (50 MW-1 GW) commissioned by SECI and state-level agencies, using ALMM-listed panels from Adani, Waaree, Premier Energies, and REC. The solar installation sector is India's fastest-growing skilled-trade employment segment: MNRE's target of 500 GW of non-fossil capacity by 2030 requires 100,000+ certified installers by 2027, and current supply is severely short of demand.

Senior: N/A

An Income Tax Practitioner (ITP) is an authorized representative under Section 288 of the Income Tax Act 1961, licensed by the Income Tax Department to appear before income-tax authorities and file ITRs on behalf of assessee clients. Unlike a CA, an ITP does not require ICAI membership — the credential is open to B.Com / M.Com graduates, retired Income Tax department officers, and persons who pass the Income Tax Practitioner examination prescribed by the CBDT. In practice, Indian ITPs serve salaried individuals, small traders, proprietors, and partnership firms with ITR-1/2/3/4 filings, advance-tax computations, 26AS reconciliation, 80C/80D advisory, capital gains (LTCG/STCG) calculations, and response to CPC intimations under Section 143(1) and rectification petitions under Section 154. Solo ITPs in tier-2 cities charge ₹500-5,000 per ITR and generate ₹2-15L annually from client volumes of 200-1,000 assessees; those who build their own practice and move into tax planning and notice management scale to ₹15-50L.

Senior: N/A