| The Compliance Delusion When the Securities and Exchange Board of India expanded insider-trading rules in June 2025, companies acted shocked, even though the underlying database requirement had existed since 2019. Enforcement had been lax until stock exchanges began requiring compliance certificates around 2022. The changes required firms to log sensitive information like credit rating changes, litigation outcomes, and key managerial personnel changes into digital databases within two days. Stock exchanges inspected these systems and publicly named non-compliant companies on their websites. Firms that had years to prepare suddenly realised they lacked basic systems to do so. The real issue wasn't regulatory surprise, but that companies treated compliance as paperwork until enforcement intensified. Supply Chain Concentration In April 2025, China tightened export controls on seven rare earth elements critical for electric vehicles and semiconductors. Indian boardrooms appeared stunned despite years of progressive Chinese restrictions signaling this move. Maruti Suzuki India Ltd. slashed its e-Vitara production target, as did Bajaj Auto Ltd. for its Chetak electric scooter. Despite the dress rehearsal that Covid-19 provided, Indian companies added vendors but left their core strategy unchanged, maintaining just-in-time philosophies and single-point dependencies for critical inputs. Project this onto pharmaceuticals to see how a lack of foresight can come back to bite. India imports 70-80% of its active pharmaceutical ingredients from China. The “pharmacy of the world” runs on Chinese APIs with two to three months of buffer stock. What happens if China applies rare earth-style export licensing to pharmaceutical APIs? India's pharma ambitions could face serious blow, not from competition or demand shocks, but from concentration risk that every boardroom can see but few address. The ESG Illusion Indian companies discovered in 2025 that greenwashing carries consequences. When the Advertising Standards Council of India found that 79% of corporate green claims were exaggerated or misleading, regulators responded with teeth: two years' imprisonment and Rs 10 lakh fines for first offences, five years and Rs 50 lakh for repeats. The problem extended beyond advertising into operations. Electronics giants including Samsung, LG, Daikin, Carrier, Hitachi and Havells sued the government over rules requiring them to recycle 80% of electronic waste by March 2026, calling targets “unrealistic”. The real problem was different: companies build ESG narratives for investor decks, not operational reality. A 2023 Centre for Policy Research survey found that only 8% of companies reported Scope 3 emissions, which is the indirect carbon footprint from their entire value chain. Less than 15% aligned with frameworks like the Global Reporting Initiative or Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures. Succession Paralysis Entrust Family Office research shows that fewer than 50% of Indian business families have documented succession plans. When 53-year-old Sunjay Kapur of Sona BLW died suddenly, family disputes erupted immediately. This pattern is repeated across India Inc., but boards assume family harmony and business logic will magically align when the need arises. What's worse, an HSBC research reveals that 45% of entrepreneurs don't expect the next generation to run their businesses, and only 7% of heirs feel obligated to take over. The second generation is globally educated, tech-focused, and uninterested in legacy manufacturing. Yet, boards maintain governance structures assuming 30-year-olds will eventually want to run ball-bearing companies. Not one of these scenarios was a surprise. Yet, boardrooms were caught napping because Indian companies excel at tactical execution but fail at strategic anticipation. They react brilliantly to crises, but invest minimally in foresight. The blind spot isn’t a lack of information, but the unwillingness to act on what is already known. The solution isn’t more information, but governance structures designed for anticipation rather than reaction, with boards that bring foresight to the table. | 
