Indian IT industry has a ‘new’ highest-paid CEO: Here’s how much he earned

HCLTech CEO C Vijayakumar has become the highest paid Indian CEO. According to the company’s annual report released on July 22, Vijayakumar’s remuneration for the fiscal year 2024 jumped to around Rs 84.16 crore, a 190.75 per cent year-on-year increase.
As stated in the annual report, Vijayakumar earned a base salary of around $1.96 million (Rs 16.39 crore), a performance-lined bonus of $1.14 million (Rs 9.53 crore), around $2.36 million (Rs 19.74 crore) was paid in long-term incentive (LTI) cash component.Further, a $4.56 million (Rs 38.15 crore) in LTI – perquisite value of the RSUs (restricted stock units) exercised and a remaining $0.04 million were paid in benefits, perquisites and allowance. This totals to $10.06 million.
According to the report, Vijayakumar’s remuneration was 707.46 times the median salary of employees at HCLTech.

HCLTech CEO on hybrid workplace model

In a letter to the shareholders, C Vijayakumar disclosed that the company’s overall revenues grew 13.7% YoY in constant currency, with the services business registering a growth of 15.8% YoY.
“Our revenues crossed the ₹100,000 crores milestone and our employee base reached the 225,000 mark (including an intake of 25,000+ entry level employees), while our services portfolio encompassing Digital, Engineering, Cloud, AI and Software, coupled with our strategic alliances, all punched in equal weigh,” he said.
“Our workplaces are evolving too. We continue to believe in the virtual-first, hybrid workplace model, with flexibility for employees to use office spaces and leverage remote working as needed. Our approach has been balanced and measured, led by active dialogues with our people and clients to develop a ‘right-mix for the right-time-andright-place’ model,” he stated.