More than 100 TCS employees earn more than Rs 1 crore annually

BENGALURU: The number of employees at Tata Consultancy Services whose annual compensation topped Rs 1 crore has crossed 100 in FY19, data accessed by ET shows. Nearly a quarter of these employees began their careers with the country’s largest IT company.

In FY17, TCS had 91 crorepatis, which jumped to 103 in FY19, excluding the compensation of CEO Rajesh Gopinathan and COO NG Subramaniam. The data also excludes the salaries of executives based outside India.

In comparison, Infosys had over 60 employees earning salaries over Rs 1.02 crore. Unlike Infosys, TCS’ compensation does not include a stock component, which strips out a significant amount of variability.


Debashis Ghosh, head of TCS’ life sciences, healthcare and public services business earned over Rs 4.7 crore; Krishnan Ramanujam, head of business and technology services, made more than Rs 4.1 crore, and K Krithivasan, head of the company’s banking, financial services and insurance business, earned over Rs 4.3 crore.

K Ananth Krishnan, the company’s chief technology officer, earned more than Rs 3.5 crore. Pratik Pal, the former head of retail and consumer products, got over Rs 4.3 crore in compensation. Pal has since moved on to Tata Sons to work on the group’s digital initiatives, ET reported earlier.

“The data above comprises salary, allowances, cash incentive, monetary value of perquisites as per Income Tax Rules and company’s contribution to provident and superannuation fund,” the annexure to the director’s report said.

TCS does not publish this in its annual report. The company did not respond to a request seeking comment.

Interestingly, the oldest employee who earned a salary of over Rs 1 crore in FY19 was the 72-year-old Barindra Sanyal, who is vice president for finance.

Analysts say part of the reason for TCS’ success has been the stability of its senior leadership and its ability to give people leadership roles without losing them to rivals.

“For senior executives, TCS has a very good retention rate. They have created paths for career progression so that people don’t feel the need to leave the company and they also have a more decentralised leadership style,” an analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage said.

Last year, TCS rejigged its services units to give close to 200 senior executives control over the business to meet quarterly targets, and freed up top management to meet longer term goals.

The CEO, presidents and executive vice presidents at the company focus on creating three- and five-year strategy plans, which could include plans to enter new markets and service areas focused on different customers.