As per the reports, among the chief executives of India’s top information technology (IT) companies, Salil Parekh from Infosys drew a pay package of around Rs 40 crore ($6.15 million) in the last fiscal, up 27% year-on-year.
What About Infosys?
On the other hand, Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani voluntarily chose not to receive any remuneration for his services.
Apart from that COO UB Pravin Rao’s compensation rose 29% to $2.2 million, while the two presidents, Ravi Kumar and Mohit Joshi, saw their remuneration rise to $3 million and $3.2 million, jumps of 25% and 24.6% respectively.
What About Wipro?
According to a recent regulatory filing, Wipro’s chief executive officer Abidali Z Neemuchwala’s pay package rose 12% to almost Rs 31 crore ($4.42 million) in FY20.
On 1, June was also Neemuchwala’s last day in the office as he made way for former Capgemini COO Thierry Delaporte.
On the other hand, Wipro’s chairman Rishad Premji and promoter (founder chairman) Azim Premji received a compensation of $0.68 million and $0.13 million in FY20, as both decided not to take profit-linked commissions in the fiscal.
Wipro said, “In view of the current situation caused by COVID-19, uncertainty in business is likely to last for the next few months. To show solidarity with the team in facing the challenge Azim H Premji, founder chairman, has foregone the profit linked commission payable to him for the relevant period for the financial year 2019-2020,” in the filing.
What About TCS?
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the largest company by revenue, reported a drop in its CEO salary after the company executives took a pay cut due to the pandemic.
According to the company’s annual report, the annual remuneration of TCS CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan shrunk 16.5% to Rs 13.3 crore in 2019-20.
Where COO and executive director N Ganapathy Subramaniam took 13% lower remuneration and CFO V Ramakrishnan took 3.5% lower remuneration respectively.
The TCS annual report said, “The managerial remuneration for the year decreased by 15%. The executive remuneration for FY 2020 is lower than FY 2019 in view of the economic conditions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The directors have decided to moderate the executive remuneration for this year to express solidarity and conserve resources,”.
Further, IT companies have noted some structural concerns in supply and demand that hit revenues slightly in Q4 FY20 but are certainly likely to cause serious damage in Q1 and Q2 FY21.
In 2020, worldwide IT spending is projected to total $3.4 trillion, a decline of 8% from 2019, according to a forecast by Gartner, Inc.
Moreover, the pandemic and effects of the global economic recession are causing leaders to prioritize spending on technology and services that are deemed “mission-critical” over initiatives aimed at growth or transformation.