Infy gives steep salary hike to Dy COO, vertical heads

Increase in employees' pay is just 8.6% in FY17

Even as Infosys effected cut in salary package of its CEO Vishal Sikka in fiscal 2017, the company has offered minimum hike to chief operating officer Pravin Rao and steep hike to its newly appointed Deputy Chief Operating Officer Ravi Kumar S and other three vertical heads.

In its annual report for 2016-17, the company said that CEO’s annual compensation for FY 2017 came down 6.8% at Rs 45.11 crore compared with Rs 48.11 crore for the same period last fiscal. The reduction was mainly on account of a drastic reduction in bonus and incentives.

It may be noted here that Co-founder of the company N R Narayana Murthy had pointed out that CEO Sikka was given a huge hike in his salary. The company’s decision to give this kind of a compensation comes at a time when Infosys decided to postpone salary hikes to all its employees and reduce hiring.

In addition to this, median remuneration of employees (MRE) excluding whole-time directors (WTDs) was Rs 5,65,585  and Rs 5,20,946 in fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2016, respectively. The increase in MRE (excluding WTDs) in fiscal 2017 is just 8.6%.

Ravikumar S, who was earlier President and Chief Delivery Officer, got promoted in January 2017, as the Deputy Chief Operating Officer, received a good hike in salary at Rs 14.87 crore in FY 2017 from Rs 8.27 crore in the previous fiscal, registering a growth of 80%. He is now reporting to Infosys COO UB Pravin Rao.

President and head of Financial Services, Healthcare, Life Sciences and Insurances Mohit Joshi, President and global head for Manufacturing, Retail and Logistics Sandeep Dadlani and President and head for Energy, Resources, Utilities, Communications and Services Rajesh K Murthy also received a maximum hike in their salaries during the period.

While Mohit Joshi received Rs 14.62 crore in FY 2017 compared with Rs 9.02 crore for FY 2016 registering a growth of 62%, Sandeep Dadlani got Rs 14.97 crore in FY 2017 from Rs 8.40 crore in the previous fiscal registering a growth of 78%. Rajesh K Murthy received Rs 14.25 crore in FY 2017 from last fiscal’s Rs 8.55 crore registering a growth of 67%.

According to an analyst tracking the company, Infosys has reduced the remuneration of all management employees so that they can avoid questions being raised from the promoter shareholders.

“In line with  67% dip in Sikka’s remuneration, the other key executives of Infosys have also seen a similar fall. Pravin Rao’s remuneration for FY17 stood at Rs 7.80 crore as compared to Rs 9.28 crore in FY16 showing a fall of 16%. Others like M D Ranganath, Ravi Kumar, Mohit Joshi, Sandeep Dadlani and Rajesh K Murthy have also witnessed a drop in remuneration. But it is actively compensated by the annual compensation,” the analyst added.