Indian IT's highest-paid execs

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Past few months have been a tough and trying time across industries. Salary cuts, salary freeze and pink slips seem to have become a norm across a number of sectors. It has been no different among Indian IT companies. As a result, most Desi IT companies have as a result effected a downsizing in employee count.

Though these were termed performance-related, salary freeze too have been announced by almost all.

However, recession seems to have had little impact on the salaries of most of the key senior personnel at these IT companies in fiscal 2008-09.

Look how fat got fatter. Here's looking into the salary hikes of Indian IT's top execs during last fiscal.

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Ashok Vemuri, Infosys

US-based Ashok Vemuri, head of BFSI and capital markets, total compensation rose to Rs 4.04 crore from Rs 2.81 crore in the previous fiscal.

Last year Vemuri, had received an annual compensation of $704,111 (a little over Rs 2.8 crore).

Azim Premji, Wipro

The only person in Wipro's senior management who took a cut in commissions and incentive was chairman Azim Premji. Premji took home $105,710 in commissions and incentive in fiscal 2008-09 compared to $127,621 in the previous fiscal. Premji's package for the year stood at $190439.

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BG Srinivas, Infosys

BG Srinivas, head of European operations and an executive council member, was the highest paid employee at Infosys in the year-ended March 2009.

Last year, Srinivas received a total compensation package of Rs 4.67 crore, which also includes approximately Rs 1.8 crore towards salary, Rs 1.16 crore towards bonus and incentives. This included an amount of Rs 38 lakh accruing from long-term benefits.

Srinivas' total remuneration rose by Rs 1.6 crore from Rs 3.07 crore in the previous fiscal, but he was second to CFO Balakrishnan in terms of hike in the total payout.

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Girish Paranjpe, Wipro

The second highest-paid employee during the fiscal was the other joint CEO Girish Paranjpe. Paranjpe received a total package of $353312 during the fiscal 2008-09. Like Vaswani, he too saw a drop in his salary, which went down to $202,638 last year as against $232,148 in the previous year.

Paranjpe too got a hike in incentives and commissions which went up from $16,756 in the previous fiscal to $150,944 in the just-concluded fiscal (2008-09).

Marti G Subramanyam, Infosys Board

Prof Marti G Subramanyam was the highest paid non-wholetime director at Rs 96 lakh (Rs 59 lakh). Other two names in the Infosys' 2007-08 were Srinath Batni, and Subhash Dhar. Batni received an annual compensation package of $316,207 (little less than Rs 1.3 crore). A member of the Infosys board, Batni is also a director on the board of Infosys Technologies (China) Co Ltd and Infosys Australia Pty Ltd.

Dhar is a senior vice-president and heads the communications, media and entertainment business unit at Infosys. He is also a member of the executive council of Infosys and serves on the board of Infosys Australia Pty Ltd. Dhar got an annual compensation package of $248,316 (a little less than Rs 1 crore), in the year 2007-08.

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Mohandas Pai, Infosys

Among the board members, Mohandas Pai earned the highest compensation package of Rs 2.59 crore. He was followed by CFO Balakrishnan at Rs 2.36 crore, Srinath Batni (Rs 1.87 crore), Chandra Shekar Kakal (Rs 1.58 crore) and Subhash B Dhar (Rs 1.27 crore).

Last year, Pai was the third highest earning executive at Infosys. He received an annual package of $443,379 (about Rs 1.8 crore). This included $82,033 (approximately Rs 37 lakh) as annual salary, bonus/incentive of $308,625 (Rs 1.3 crore), other annual compensation of $31,916 (around Rs 14 lakh) and $20,805 (around Rs 9 lakh) towards long-term benefits.

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N Chandrasekaran, TCS

Chief Operating Officer N Chandrasekaran, who would replace Ramadorai as TCS CEO later this year, saw his remuneration rise from Rs 1.41 crore to Rs 1.92 crore. The hike in his salary was higher than CEO Ramadorai's. Chandrasekaran's total salary grew by 36% vs Ramadorai's 23%.

Phiroz Vandrevala, TCS

TCS Executive director Phiroz Vandrevala got the highest pay hike of 41% among the company's board members as his remuneration rose from Rs 1 crore to Rs 1.41 crore.

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S Gopalakrishnan, Infosys

The CEO and MD, S Gopalakrishnan's total compensation package stood at Rs 92 lakh (Rs 81 lakh) while co-chairman Nandan Nilekani earned Rs 91 lakh (Rs 82 lakh). In comparison, the hike was lowest at Rs 9 lakh for Nilekani as also COO SD Shibulal and whole time director K Dinesh, while that of Murthy rose by Rs 13 lakh during the year.

COO SD Shibulal's Rs 87 lakh (Rs 78 lakh) was the lowest among key management personnel. NR Narayana Murthy, non-executive chairman and chief mentor, took home a commission of Rs 63 lakh (Rs 50 lakh).

Suresh Vaswani, Wipro

Taking into account salary and commissions, the highest paid employee in Wipro for FY2009 was Suresh Vaswani, joint CEO of the company's IT business. Vaswani received an annual package of $371014.

However, Vaswani saw a drop in salary during the fiscal 2008-09. The salary received by him for the year was $209,035 as against $259,216 in the previous fiscal. But Vaswani saw a jump in incentives received. The joint CEO received commissions worth $161,979 in the fiscal vis-a-vis $13,180 received a year earlier.

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Suresh C Senapaty, Wipro

Wipro CFO Suresh Senapaty received a total package of $334831. Like others, his salary too saw a fall while incentives and commissions went up.

Senapaty received commissions and incentives of $119,443 during FY2008-09 compared to $13,374 in FY2007-08. While incentives went up, there was a drop in salary with Senapaty getting $215,388 as against $237,674 in the previous fiscal.

S Ramadorai, TCS

The country's top IT firm, TCS, has enhanced total pay packages of its top management personnel and board members by over Rs 1 crore - in the process giving a better hike to its incoming CEO than his predecessor. The Tata group entity paid a total remuneration of Rs 12.80 crore to its key management personnel and board members during 2008-09, up from Rs 11.08 crore in the previous fiscal. In terms of total package, CEO S Ramadorai was the highest paid executive with a total remuneration of Rs 4.1 crore in the fiscal, according to TCS' annual report. Ramadorai's pay package grew by about 22% from Rs 3.37 crore in 2007-08.

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V Balakrishnan, Infosys

Surprisingly, the fattest pay package at the country's second-largest IT exporter does not go to its chief mentor and non-executive chairman N Narayana Murthy, co-chairman Nandan Nilekani or CEO and MD S Gopalakrishan.

It goes to CFO V Balakrishnan with a hike of Rs 1.73 crore. Balakrishnan's remuneration increased from Rs 63 lakh to Rs 2.36 crore last fiscal.

Source: indiatimes