According to data gathered by The Economic Times, seven out of the total 10 highest-paid CEOs in India belong to the IT sector. The salaries of these top CEOs ranged from ₹29 crore to ₹82 crore per annum, the ET analysis data showed.

An analysis of the Bombay Stock Exchange 500 companies on the stock market showed that the highest-paid CEOs in the country included Thierry Delaporte of Wipro, Sandeep Kalra of Persistent Systems, Nitin Rakesh of Mphasis, Salil Parekh of Infosys, Sudhir Singh of Coforge, CP Gurnani, outgoing CEO of Tech Mahindra, and Rajesh Gopinathan, former CEO of TCS.

Wipro’s Thierry Delaporte has been ranked as the highest-paid CEO of India in the IT sector, with a salary of over ₹80 crore. Meanwhile, former TCS CEO Rajesh Gopinath reported a salary of ₹29 crore this year.

Further, HCL Technologies CEO and MD C Vijayakumar was the eleventh highest-paid CEO in India, reporting an annual salary of ₹28 crore in FY23. One of the main reasons why IT companies reward their executives and directors handsomely is because, unlike the majority of the other industries, they compete in the global market.

Zerodha founders Kamath brother’s salary revealed

Zerodha founders and directors Nithin Kamath and Nikhil Kamath became the highest-paid CEOs of a startup company in India, reporting an annual salary of ₹72 crore each. The second on the list was Oyo founder Ritesh Agarwal, with an annual salary of ₹12 crore.

However, Nithin Kamath had explained in the past that the high salaries of top management and executives are not actually the drawn salary of the individual. Saying that nearly half of it goes out in taxes, the value of the salaries are set high to reduce the risk of losses during liquidation of the firm.