23 September 2026 Punjab Khabarnama Bureau : Corporate India is increasingly rethinking the traditional assumption that strong English fluency is essential for career growth and leadership. As India’s talent pool expands beyond English-speaking metropolitan centres, companies are placing greater emphasis on domain expertise, strategic thinking, learning agility and leadership ability.
The shift does not mean English is becoming irrelevant. Instead, companies are beginning to distinguish between language proficiency and professional competence, particularly when recruiting talent from Tier-II and Tier-III cities.
English No Longer the Only Measure of Talent
English has historically played an important role in campus recruitment and initial candidate screening. However, recruiters are increasingly questioning whether fluency in the language is an accurate measure of someone’s ability to perform a job.
According to executive search professional Chetan Mangalwedhe, English is often used more heavily as a screening tool for junior candidates than as a measure of actual job performance.
This has encouraged some companies to look beyond polished communication when evaluating candidates.
Skills Over Accent and Fluency
The change is particularly visible when candidates demonstrate strong technical or functional expertise.
Business Today cited an example of a Tier-II city candidate who had limited spoken English but performed exceptionally well in a technical assessment. After being hired, the employee worked with clients in regional languages and reportedly became one of the company’s strongest hires.
Such examples suggest that companies are increasingly willing to separate communication style from the underlying capability of a candidate.
Leadership Is About More Than Language
The issue becomes more complicated at senior levels.
English may remain important when executives interact with global clients, investors, boards or multinational teams. But experts quoted by Business Today argue that strategic clarity, decision-making and the ability to communicate complex ideas matter more than accent or perfect grammar.
An executive presence coach cited in the report described how one senior leader struggled to participate in strategy discussions because he was mentally translating his thoughts into English and trying to formulate grammatically perfect sentences.
Once he focused on expressing one clear idea at a time rather than perfecting his English, colleagues were reportedly better able to recognise his strategic thinking.
Tier-II and Tier-III Cities Expand the Talent Pool
One of the biggest reasons behind the shift is India’s changing talent geography.
More than 60% of India’s engineering graduates are now from Tier-II and Tier-III cities, according to NASSCOM data cited in the Business Today report. These cities also host more than 220 Global Capability Centre units, creating increasingly sophisticated employment opportunities outside traditional metropolitan hubs.
For companies seeking specialised talent, ignoring this pool because of language preferences could mean overlooking capable professionals.
Business Schools Are Adapting Too
The changing talent landscape is also visible in management education.
The Business Today report notes that TAPMI has around 10% of its incoming students from vernacular-medium backgrounds, while IIM Calcutta provides voluntary bridge programmes and business-communication courses to help students adapt to corporate environments.
These initiatives indicate that institutions are increasingly treating communication as a skill that can be developed rather than an automatic indicator of leadership potential.
Regional Languages Can Be an Advantage
For many businesses, knowing an Indian language can actually be useful.
Executives and employees working with local customers, suppliers, factory workers, distributors and regional stakeholders may benefit from being able to communicate directly in the language used by those communities.
Deloitte India’s Chief People and Experience Officer Deepti Sagar told Business Today that the company’s hiring approach focuses on domain knowledge, learning agility, ambition, confidence and values. Professional English remains important for global-client roles, while Indian languages can provide an advantage when dealing with local stakeholders.
AI Could Reduce Some Language Barriers
Artificial intelligence and translation technology could further accelerate the change.
Real-time translation and multilingual AI tools are making it easier for people who speak different languages to communicate. India’s growing focus on AI systems capable of understanding regional languages could also make multilingual workplaces more practical.
However, technology cannot completely replace human communication in situations requiring persuasion, negotiation, trust-building and rapid decision-making.
English Still Matters in Many Roles
The emerging trend should not be interpreted as the end of English in Indian corporate life.
English remains important in multinational companies, international business, global client relationships and many senior management settings. The change is more about how English proficiency is weighted during hiring and promotion.
Instead of treating fluency as a universal proxy for competence, companies are increasingly considering whether the candidate can perform the actual responsibilities of the role.
A Wider Definition of Executive Potential
The shift could gradually broaden India’s corporate leadership pipeline.
Professionals who grew up outside major English-speaking urban centres may bring technical expertise, regional-market knowledge and familiarity with local consumers that are valuable to companies operating across India.
For employers, the challenge is to maintain the communication standards required for specific roles without allowing language polish to become an unnecessary barrier to capable talent.
The Changing Corporate Equation
India Inc’s approach is therefore evolving from English fluency as a default filter towards a more role-specific assessment of communication.
The emerging model does not eliminate English. Instead, it asks a different question: can an executive understand the business, make sound decisions, communicate clearly and deliver results?
As India’s workforce becomes more geographically and linguistically diverse, that distinction could become increasingly important for corporate hiring and leadership development.