The changing face of Indian promoters

Till recently, almost all top corporate executives shared a commonality. Education wise, everyone hailed from crème de la crème. Graduates from reputed foreign universities, or close home, those from IITs/IIMs occupied the highest rung, and there was little space for anyone else. But not anymore.

A recent report by Marcellus Investment has highlighted how India is now making way for new, non IIT/IIM, desi breed of entrepreneurs and promoters to take charge. For the first time, 54% non-IIT/IIM graduates are at the helm of companies listed in Nifty50, an umbrella index of India’s 50 biggest companies by market cap. 1% of these honchos are not even graduates, and a meager 15% come from IIT or IIMs.

In fact, as the report pointed out, all the executive directors on board of HDFC Bank, India’s second largest valuable company by market capitalization, are alums of Mumbai University. In another instance, Umang Vohra, who heads Cipla, another Nifty50 company, holds an MBA from a private Indian institution.

Clearly, the way to power no longer lies on the properties of the urban, upper-class, pedigreed elite. It belongs just as much to the middle-class, small-town Indian that is making its way to the top.

Changing times

Compare this to the scenario 20 years ago, when 40% of these executives had a foreign degree, and 17% had the IIT/IIM stamp to their name. While it is not as if reputed elite educational institutions have stopped producing talent, the fact is that India’s need for qualified manpower has exponentially grown in recent years.

But what propelled this transformation? A combination of many. For one, India’s economic growth trajectory has been phenomenal. Not only is it set to outpace other G20 economies in the coming years, it has sustained 7%+ growth over the last decade. Today, 52% Indians have access to the internet, 90%+ have a bank account and 85% have a smartphone. Importantly, everyone is aspirational. This is one reason for the strong ongoing credit demand, which was up 16.3% last month. Credit card payments have already outpaced debit cards, reflecting that people are willing to spend more on what they want.

Add to that the India stack, which comprises Aadhar, UPI and now, ONDC, and has connected India like nothing else. NPCI data revealed that in 2022, UPI enabled over 2,000 transactions every second. UPI accounted for over half of India’s total digital transactions last year. All this has paved the way for entrepreneurs and promoters who have an iron grip on the problems of new India, and more so on the ways to solve it.