As per the reports, with an average compensation of an Indian CEO is Rs 11.2 crore whereas the median is Rs 7.4 crore. This is the highest in three years.
The average compensation of CEOs in FY21 was Rs 9.4 crore (Rs 6.4 crore median), while in FY20, it was Rs 9.8 crore (Rs 6.9 crore median) as per the 2022 Deloitte India Executive Remuneration Survey.
The compensation average includes salaries of both promoter CEOs as well as professional CEOs. This is inclusive of the long-term incentives (LTIs).
The survey in which the average compensation of professional CEOs in FY22 stood at Rs 10 crore and median of Rs 7.4 crore, covered over 470 firms across IT, ITeS, services, manufacturing, consumer products, life sciences, and financial services sectors.
Deloitte partner Anubhav Gupta said that “Limited and highly sought-after talent pool, the talent that is highly fungible within and even across sectors, and continued gap to global pay levels contribute to the increase in executive pay”.
Now that being said, who is then the CEO who is minting the most money?
HCL CEO is the Highest Earning Indian CEO for the Year
It is the HCL Technologies Ltd’s chief executive C. Vijayakumar. What makes him the highest earning boss among Indian software services firms is the fact that he earned ?123.13 crore ($16.52 million) last year, with three-fourths of his income in long-term benefits.
Noida-based HCL Technologies disclosed its chief executive’s remuneration in its annual report released over the weekend and revealed that the CEO’s annual base salary totaled $2 million, $2 million in variable pay and $0.02 million in perquisites and other benefits for the year ended 31 March.
A Long-Term Incentive (LTI) of $12.50 million, which includes income earned for the last two years, brought his total compensation to $16.52 million.
According to the country’s third largest technology services company, Vijayakumar’s salary of $4.13 million in the year ended March 2021 did not include the LTI.
His Early Life, Education & Career
He was born in Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu in India and attended The Lawrence School. He then pursued Bachelor of Engineering degree in electrical & electronics engineering from PSG College of Technology, Tamil Nadu, India.
He joined HCL Technologies in 1994 as a senior technical engineer.
In July 2016, he was appointed the company’s chief operating officer and in the same year October was made the CEO.