The Hindu Business Line : Ramalinga Raju’s salary is lowest among peers!

Bangalore, Jan. 22 Mr Ramalinga Raju’s total remuneration as the Chairman of Satyam Computer Services Ltd was lower than that of the chief executives and chairmen of the other top four Indian IT services companies, a comparative study revealed.

It was just Rs 60.43 lakh that the man – who shook corporate India by admitting to a fraud of over Rs 7,000 crore in the fourth largest Indian IT company and referred to his fudging experience as having ridden a tiger – took home in the last fiscal ending March, 2008.

Interestingly, Mr Vineet Nayar, Chief Executive of HCL Technologies Ltd, drew relatively high salary during the fiscal ended June 2008 at Rs 2.90 crore. Mr S. Ramadorai, Chief Executive and Managing Director of TCS, the largest Indian IT services exporter, received a gross remuneration of Rs 3.37 crore.

Mr Azim Premji, Chairman of India’s third largest IT services exporter, Wipro Ltd, drew a total remuneration of Rs 1.31 crore during the period. Total salary for Mr S. Gopalakrishnan, Chief Executive and Managing Director of Infosys Technologies Ltd, was Rs 81 lakh.

Even in fiscal 2007, Mr Raju’s remuneration trailed that of his counterparts. While the founder of Satyam received a mere Rs 53 lakh , Mr Premji took home Rs 3.58 crore as total salary during the year ended March, 2007.

In the same period, the gross remuneration for Mr Ramadorai was Rs 2.93 crore, while Mr Gopalakrishnan drew a total salary of Rs 54 lakh . Mr Vineet Nayar of HCL earned a total salary of Rs 1.03 crore in the year ended June 2007.

Mr Raju had begun the new millennium with a total salary of Rs 44 lakh in fiscal 2001, which has grown only gradually over the years. His cumulative earnings through salary over the last eight years come to roughly Rs 4.04 crore.