Based on the surnames - which usually give away caste affiliation - of the members of these company boards, the intrepid researchers classified them into Forward Castes, Other Backward Classes (OBCs), ScheduledCastes and Tribes and foreign directors.
However, ownership of business among OBC's - an acronym for Other Backward Castes or the "middle castes" who "neither suffering the extreme social and economic discrimination of the ScheduledCastes, nor enjoying the social privileges of the upper castes" - has grown.