[8/17, 8:11 PM] Jegashini: Economic development means continuous increase in the quality of life. This requires more knowledge, access to information, wealth, etc. This means, the people need more information for economic decision making. Enhanced need for information, access to wealth earning sources, etc needs more verified financial information ultimately increasing the demand for audit and the expectation of the audit performance to be high.

[8/17, 8:11 PM] Jegashini: The financial operations are mor complex, the need for audit is high. The users of financial statements are not always from the accounting or finance field. They expect the financial statements to be in a language that they can understand. However, when the financial operations are complex, the chances they may misunderstand or misinterpret is high. Therefore they highly rely on the auditors to certify the information for their decision making. Hence the need for audit will be high. The auditor has to perform in a way to convert the results of the complex financial operations into more meaningful way to make the understandability.

[8/17, 8:11 PM] Jegashini: Globalization and internationalzation of capital market means the capital markets are open for foreign investors. So the foreign direct investments flow into the country. The foreign investors need to have confidence over the investment sources they invest. So they need more financial information about the local companies which require the investment. Hence, they need auditors reports which assures the true and fair view of the companies. More access to those information, more investment availability. Hence, the demand for audit will be high and the expected performance need to be able to satisfy the expectation of the multinational investors.

[8/17, 8:11 PM] Jegashini: Information technology advancement may have a dual impact. The advancement in technology has emerged the block chains and distributed ledgers. This means, the users can observe the real time data without waiting for the financial statements to be released, since they have the access to the ledgers. This may reduce the need for audit. Also,there can be many applications which can interpret the financial results for the users purpose, in a tailor made manner. Therefore, the users do not rely on the auditors much.

But, on the other hand, if those financial information using technology can be mistated, misinterpreted, manipulated or misguided committing advanced technology frauds, the need for audit emerges. However, this audit is different from the traditional audit. The auditors need to have a complete understanding of technology, forensic approach and ability to respond the needs of the users in the modern era.