In my years of working with India's wealthiest families, I have observed a significant shift in succession patterns. For a long time, succession followed a predictable rhythm: fathers passed the baton to their sons, and the male lineage continued through corporate structures much as it did through inheritance rituals.

Daughters were either not a part of the picture or given roles adjacent to power; either way, they were rarely placed at its centre. But today, women from business families are increasingly stepping into roles of responsibility and authority in their family businesses.

The foundations for this shift were laid decades ago. India’s family-planning policies in the 1960s led to smaller families and changes in inheritance laws in the mid-2000s paved the way for women to become an integral part of family business succession.

Simultaneously, regulatory changes such as Sebi’s mandate for at least one woman director on listed-company boards have pushed families to rethink the role of…