The board’s 2026 agenda

As Indian companies commence their board evaluations, directors will begin to prioritise what should be on the board’s agenda. My conversations tell me most believe that “plus ca change, plus c'est la méme chose.”

- AMIT TANDON

As Indian companies commence their board evaluations, directors will begin to prioritise what should be on the board’s agenda. My conversations tell me most believe that “plus ca change, plus c'est la méme chose.”

Even as the agenda largely remains unchanged, most expect compliance to dominate — it always does. The subtext, however, will change, weighed by some headline cases: Gensol Engineering (weak internal controls and unmonitored related-party transactions); IndiGo Airlines (risk management is operational — not just financial and proactive risk assessments for known regulatory changes) and IndusInd Bank (culture matters as much as control and timely disclosures). Here is what to expect.

Geopolitics:

It’s now a discussion within the boardroom rather than a conversation in a post-meeting soiree. Companies face intensifying geopolitical headwinds, from disrupting supply chains to market access and tariffs. Concentration risks in critical inputs, dual sourcing, where the competition is friend-shoring to allies (e.g., Vietnam, Mexico). Boards must stress-test “what breaks first” in the event of tariffs or sanctions, review single-source dependencies and logistics chokepoints, and ensure resilience without compromising capital-expenditure efficiency.

Strategy, capital, and regulatory overhang:

Strategy discussions should be viewed through the prism of India’s $5 trillion-economy ambition, regulatory tightening, and global macro volatility. Boards need to constantly review growth plans against a backdrop of shifting trade regimes that impact supply chains, industrial policy (production-linked incentives, localisation) and sector-specific regulations.