Let me paint a quick scene. It is a Tuesday morning in March. The annual general meeting of a Nifty 50 company is two weeks away. The board has spent six months on a thoughtful, intentional decision to delay CEO succession by a year — because the company is mid-way through a major acquisition and continuity matters. They have explained the reasoning in earnings calls, investor letters, and the proxy statement. Somewhere in a server in New York, an AI system ingests that proxy

You’ve probably heard the phrase “shareholder democracy” tossed around at investor meetings or in financial news—but here’s the thing: in practice, it’s often more of a polite fiction than a reality. Most shareholders hold stakes, but few actually get a say in how a company is run. Meanwhile, the SEC —the watchdog of U.S. markets—sets rules that decide just how loud those voices can be. Why does this matter now? Because the stakes are higher than ever. From Wall Street giants