The recently released annual report of IT services giant Tata Consultancy Services provides valuable insight into C-suite executive salaries (remuneration) in India. For instance, K. Krithivasan took home a staggering ₹26.52 crore in FY2025—that is ₹2.21 crore a month!
In the fiscal 2025, the top executive’s remuneration jumped by 4.6 per cent, according to the company report. This is in contrast with the median remuneration at TCS as the CEO took home close to 330 times of it, shining much-needed light on the parity in salary in the IT services sector.
The breakdown of Krithivasan’s ₹26.52 crore compensation includes the salary of ₹1.39 crore, ₹2.13 crore in benefits (including perquisites and allowances) and a commission of ₹23 crore, as per the annual report.
A huge chunk of Indian IT services, mostly SaaS (Software as a Service)—given that the Indian tech industry en masse seems allergic to the concept of making a decent PaaS (Product as a Service) offering despite churning out electronics, computer science, and IT engineers like a machine—make a chunk of its money being offshore proxies for companies based elsewhere.
TCS’s rival Infosys even has clients such as Credit Suisse, Rabobank, CITI Financial, AMP Australia, Philips (the Holland one), et al. for its ‘Infosys BPM’ arm. Despite having such heavyweight clients, one would expect these IT giants—which are also part of the top ten listed companies in the country by market cap—to pay the lower part of the career pyramid better.
To be fair, TCS was only valued at around ₹12,71,395.95 crore, when markets closed last week. At the same time, Infosys was valued at ₹6,49,876.91 crore.
However, TCS does seem to pay the deserving C-suite officials. Aarthi Subramanian, who recently was appointed as president and COO, is set to take home a reported ₹10.8 lakh in remuneration per month.
And TCS has had many an expenditure. These include the ₹2,630 crore it spent on “research and development and innovation” in FY2025—a mind-boggling 1 per cent of its total fiscal turnover, as the numbers from its annual report say. While “clearer trade agreements and improved global cooperation” are expected to help TCS “regain momentum”, the IT giant also warned of “risks like financial market volatility, demographic shifts, and fiscal constraints.”
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Hiking C-suite salaries did not stop TCS from deferring salary hikes to many of its employees, as per reports in April 2025. The SaaS giant stated that the challenging and uncertain business environment due to the “ongoing global tariff war” triggered by US President Donald Trump was the reason, as the Trump tariffs lifted the volatility in key markets of TCS.
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The tariffs, which mostly affected material export-import, are yet to factor on “software as a service”, and it was shortly put on hold. Here is hoping that employees of India’s biggest IT firms get their raises, much like their C-suite. That is, if AI doesn’t take over first. Recently, Tata Sons chairman N, Chandrasekaran—who also happens to head the TCS board—said that the company looks to create a “large pool” of AI agents that would work alongside humans and deliver solutions in a “human+AI” model.