The joint committee of the Parliamentary panel has been examining the amendments to the Companies Act, and has recommended reducing the minimum age for
appointment as managing director and whole-time director from 21 years to 18. Further, the panel has also backed raising the maximum age from 70 years to 75, without the requirement of a special resolution. Lowering the age will bring it in line with similar age caps in the US, Singapore, Germany and Australia. “During the deliberations, a general consensus within the committee arose as to lowering of the minimum age from 21 to 18 years. The ministry (of corporate affairs) has informed that similar suggestions were received from HLC-Niti Aayog in order to encourage and increase the representation of young people on boards...,” the panel chaired by Sudheer Gupta said in the report tabled in Parliament. While supporting further decriminalisation of the law, the committee also recommended dropping some of the proposals that are part of the bill such as doing away with one of the proposals related to NFRA and instead providing a penalty.
