Infosys CEO Salil Parekh took home Rs 66.25 crore in FY24, second highest after ex-Wipro CEO

BENGALURU: Infosys CEO and MD Salil Parekh’s annual compensation increased 17% to Rs 66.25 crore in FY24, according to the company’s annual report. He was the second highest paid CEO in the Indian IT industry after Wipro’s former CEO Thierry Delaporte, who earned close to Rs 166 crore in FY24.

Parekh’s compensation was 677 times that of the average salary of an Infosys employee. The average annual increase in the salaries of employees was 9% in India and the MRE (median remuneration of employees) was Rs 9,77,868 in FY24 compared to Rs 9,00,012 in FY23.

After receiving an annual payment of Rs 71.02 crore in FY22, Parekh’s compensation fell 21% to Rs 56.44 crore in FY23 as he exercised fewer RSUs (Restricted Stock Units) compared to last fiscal.

Parekh’s FY24 remuneration includes Rs 39.03 crore pertaining to exercise of 2,58,636 RSUs under the 2015 Plan and 32,447 RSUs under the 2019 Plan during fiscal 2024.

The company’s chairman and non-executive and non-independent director (promoter) Nandan M Nilekani voluntarily chose not to receive any remuneration for his services rendered to the company. In the annual report, Nilekani said, “The Gen AI revolution presents an unrivaled opportunity. The flux of change as the whole technological landscape is being reset will create many large openings. Packaged solutions will be reimagined, and we will see a resurgence of custom-built solutions that must be enabled with new types of AI building blocks.”

He added that global companies will have to build their AI applications in a way that they are compliant in every country. “While application can be trialled on very large models, deployment will be on narrow transformers, trained on relevant enterprise data, fully secure and efficient in their inferencing,” he added.

In his letter to shareholders, the CEO informed that the company is working on several projects with clients to help them benefit from generative AI. “These projects are in software engineering, process optimization, customer support, advisory services, as well as sales and marketing. They are helping our clients reduce cost, improve service quality, connect with their customers and drive growth,” he added.