CEO Pay in India FY26: Disclosed Compensation Explained
Updated: 8 hours ago
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By Parikshit Khanna · Updated 7 October 2026
Large CEO-pay headlines often use “salary” to describe a much broader remuneration figure. This revised guide uses dated disclosures and clearly attributed reporting. It replaces the earlier unsupported Top 30 ranking rather than presenting incomplete data as a national league table.
Selected FY26 disclosures
This is a comparison of selected executives, not an exhaustive ranking of India’s highest-income individuals. Indian FY26 covers the year ended 31 March 2026.
Executive and company | Reported FY26 remuneration |
|---|---|
C. Vijayakumar, HCLTech | US$18.13 million; annual-report figure reported by The Economic Times |
Salil Parekh, Infosys | ₹82.60 crore; company governance report |
K. Krithivasan, TCS | About ₹28 crore; company annual report |
Infosys: the composition matters
The Infosys disclosure reports ₹8.50 crore fixed salary including retiral benefits, ₹23.35 crore bonus or variable pay and ₹50.75 crore in perquisites from stock incentives exercised. Its ₹82.60 crore total is therefore not base salary. The report explicitly excludes the value of newly granted stock incentives from that calculation.
TCS: read the unit before calculating
The TCS remuneration table uses lakh rupees. It records salary of 167.6 lakh, benefits and allowances of 143.7 lakh, and commission of 2,500 lakh for Krithivasan. Read the complete report and its accompanying notes before comparing a rounded total.
What the HCLTech figure represents
The Economic Times reports US$18.13 million as total remuneration disclosed in HCLTech’s FY26 annual report. Keep the source currency: translating at an unrelated current exchange rate creates a different rupee estimate.
Salary, wealth and business revenue
Remuneration is not personal net worth. Company revenue belongs to the business, and an equity award may depend on vesting or performance. There is no universal rule that only a fixed percentage of every headline package becomes cash; the earlier 10–40% assertion has been removed.
A reliable comparison method
Choose the same fiscal period, read each compensation definition and record the source page. Separate recurring cash, commission, benefits, exercised options and new awards. Only build a ranking after defining a complete population and applying the same measure.
How to compare disclosed compensation fairly
A comparison starts with the reporting period and the components included. Fixed pay, performance-linked pay, benefits and share-related amounts may all appear within a remuneration disclosure. Two totals can look comparable while representing different combinations of those elements.
Read the notes alongside the headline figure, especially when a disclosure includes stock-option exercises or another non-recurring component. Keep the original reporting currency visible and identify any conversion separately. The aim is to explain what the disclosure measures, rather than turn a limited selection of companies into an unsupported national ranking.
Reader question
Can annual remuneration be divided by twelve to show take-home salary?
That arithmetic gives an average of the reported total, not verified monthly cash received. Timing, taxes, benefits and equity components can make the actual payment pattern substantially different.
Sources and further reading
Related reading
About Parikshit Khanna
Parikshit Khanna is the founder of Digital Training Jet, a corporate AI and prompt-engineering trainer, TEDx speaker and visiting faculty at GLBIMR. He reports a professional reach of 3,50,000+ people. His workshops connect practical AI use with clear communication and human review.
For workshops, speaking and collaborations: parikshitkhanna@digitaltrainingjet.com.
Independent editorial content. Mentioning a person, programme or product does not imply an endorsement or partnership with Parikshit Khanna or Digital Training Jet.
