India Inc boardrooms look younger with a third of new directors aged below 30

The development comes as new company incorporations are taking off in a big way as more Indians try their hand at entrepreneurship.

India Inc boardrooms never looked more vibrant as more and more start-ups get incorporated and a younger lot of directors join the company boards.

According to data compiled by Moneycontrol, more than 30 percent of the new directors who registered with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) were below 30, and nearly 72 percent of the directors who have registered during the year were yet to turn 45.

For the year to November, some 3.76 lakh directors registered with the MCA and out of them 1.16 lakh were aged under 30, while another 1.6 lakh were in the 31-45 years age group. In contrast, 74,110 new directors were from the age group of 46-60, while 25,809 were older than 60.  In other words, about 20 percent of the new directors were in the 46-60 age group, while about 7 percent were older than 60, data showed.

The development comes as new company incorporations are taking off in a big way as more Indians try their hands at entrepreneurship. During 2024, nearly 1.4 lakh companies registered with the MCA, taking the total number of active companies to 18 lakh, according to the data.

The MCA had disclosed the age-wise profile of directors for the first time in FY22 and back then about 26 percent of the new directors were younger than 30 years. The proportion of younger directors has been increasing gradually. In FY23, 28 percent of the new directors were younger than 30.

Another key takeaway from the data is the disparity between male and female directors. During 2024, a total of 1.22 lakh female directors registered with the MCA, which is about 32 percent of the total registrations. The development assumes significance as Indian regulators have been making efforts towards gender parity at the board level. It is mandatory for all listed companies to have women directors. Further, the Companies Act also makes it compulsory for any company having a paid-up capital of over Rs 100 crore or turnover of Rs 300 crore to appoint a woman director.

The disparity between male and female directors is evident even in the younger age category. In 2024, about 85,208 men under 30 had registered as directors against 31,166 women. Similarly, 1.03 lakh men from the age group of 31-45 registered as directors, compared to 56,849 women, data showed. In FY22, about 29 percent of the new directors registered were women, while in FY23, the number was 31 percent.