Fortune India 40 Under 40 2026: India’s next-gen leaders bet on scale, technology and institution-building

India’s next generation of business and political leaders sees the country’s next phase of growth being driven by a combination of entrepreneurship, technology, rising consumption and stronger institutions, but they also believe businesses will need to balance speed with governance and legacy with innovation.

Across conversations at the Fortune India 40 Under 40 2026 in Mumbai on Wednesday, entrepreneurs, corporate leaders and policymakers highlighted opportunities ranging from consumer spending and renewable energy to artificial intelligence, research, food processing and global expansion.

The discussions also indicated a broader shift in how the next generation views leadership—with a stress on building institutions, taking long-term bets and creating businesses that can scale beyond their founders.

From building companies to building institutions

Sebi chairman Tuhin Kanta Pandey said India's growing businesses will need governance frameworks that evolve alongside them.

“Corporate governance must grow alongside businesses as Indian enterprises scale up,” Pandey said, urging founders and promoter families to make the transition “from control to stewardship”.

He also cautioned entrepreneurs against viewing public markets simply as a source of capital.

“Being able to raise public capital is not the same as being ready for public capital,” Pandey said, adding that “public capital, therefore, comes with public accountability”.

Technology, he said, must also move higher up the corporate agenda as businesses deal with AI, cybersecurity and data risks.

“Technology must therefore be a board priority. It's no longer merely an operational concern; it's central to business continuity,” Pandey said.

Young India sees consumption as a long-term opportunity

Consumption emerged as one of the strongest themes at the event.

Aryaman Birla, director at Aditya Birla Group, described the group's investment in Royal Challengers Bengaluru as a bet on India's rising consumer and middle-class spending power.

“So it was really a bet on the fact that the Indian consumer will continue to grow,” Birla said.

He also identified fashion, jewellery and food services among the consumption categories that could benefit as Indian households move up the value curve.

For Nykaa's Anchit Nayar, however, India's beauty opportunity extends beyond premiumisation.

“We have one of the lowest per capita spends on beauty anywhere in the world,” Nayar said, adding that demand would exist “all the way from value to mass to prestige”.

Nayar, who returned to Nykaa after spending seven to eight years in investment banking at Morgan Stanley, said his role is increasingly focused on scaling established businesses.

“I have the ability to take things from, say, one plus as opposed to zero to one,” he said.

Technology, research and new sectors

Technology and innovation also featured prominently in the discussions.

Pandey called for greater industry participation in research and development, noting that India's R&D spending has remained around 0.6%-0.8% of GDP in recent years.

“Your generation has the opportunity to build that capability in India, own intellectual property, and take Indian innovation to the world,” he said.

Andhra Pradesh minister Nara Lokesh similarly called for greater investment in research and emerging sectors, arguing that education could help connect talent and opportunities across countries.

“A lot of money needs to go into research. I believe that that is the need of the hour,” Lokesh said.

His pitch for Andhra Pradesh's investment proposition centred on what he called the “three S's” — speed, service and stability.

“Having a chief minister who can open doors makes my job half easy. And the other half is for me to go into the meeting room and close the door and close the deal,” Lokesh said.

Building global Indian businesses

Union minister Chirag Paswan urged young entrepreneurs to move beyond becoming job seekers and focus on creating jobs and globally recognised Indian brands.

“We should not only be job seekers; we should also be job creators and job providers,” Paswan said.

He identified food processing as an area where India could build global scale, saying the country has the agricultural base, consumer market and traditional expertise needed to become a global food-processing hub.

Quality, he said, would be critical to building the broader Brand India.

“How do we make sure that when you talk about ‘Made in India’, it comes with the utmost assurance of quality?” Paswan asked.

The next generation must balance legacy and change

The challenge for established businesses, meanwhile, will be to combine their existing strengths with new ways of operating.

At a panel on next-generation leadership, JK Cement's Madhav Singhania and Cyril Amarchand Mangaldas' Rishabh Shroff highlighted opportunities around consumption, sustainability, AI and India's global expansion.

Shroff said Indian companies are increasingly developing international ambitions, creating opportunities for cross-border expansion and professional services.

At the same time, both leaders pointed to structural challenges including ease of doing business, policy consistency and dispute resolution.

For JioStar vice-chairman Uday Shankar, the media industry's biggest challenge is different: monetisation.

“Media companies have done a great job of innovating on content, creativity, brand, distribution, everything. But they have been totally legacy-bound in inventing or innovating on monetisation,” Shankar said.

The common thread across the conversations was therefore not simply growth, but how India's next generation builds for the long term — whether that means scaling family businesses, creating new consumer brands, attracting capital, developing technology or strengthening institutions.

As Pandey put it: “Build enterprises that create value, build institutions that deserve trust, and set standards that others will want to follow.”