Indian companies faced rising costs in FY26, with supply disruptions and volatile crude oil prices weighing on margins towards the end of the year. Several firms responded with price hikes, while others absorbed the higher costs to protect demand.

But how much of that pressure reached the corner office?

The median CEO compensation rose 5% to Rs 10.5 crore in FY26, the slowest growth since COVID-19. Anandorup Ghose, Partner at Deloitte India, said CXO pay decisions in India have become more measured. “With Indian equities underperforming over the past 12-18 months and market risks rising, boards have kept pay hikes in check,” he added.

Performance-linked bonuses and stock awards made up a huge chunk of many executives’ pay. Swiggy's Group CEO Sriharsha Majety received Rs 550 crore in FY26, seven times his previous year’s compensation. Nearly all of it came from exercising stock options during the year.

While IT CEOs topped the pay charts, some executives took home a much larger share of their companies’ profits. Bank CEOs earned relatively little compared with the profits of the country’s biggest lenders.

In this edition of Chart of the Week, we look at some of India’s highest-paid CEOs across industries in FY26.

IT CEOs cash in on stock rewards

Software companies typically pay their CEOs some of the highest salaries in India. In FY26, stock-linked rewards made up a large part of that pay.

Persistent Systems CEO Sandeep Kalra received the highest pay among IT CEOs in FY26, with his compensation equivalent to about 20.8% of the company’s net profit. His total compensation of Rs 388.6 crore was 162% higher than the previous year. Excluding exercised stock options, Kalra’s core cash salary rose 43%.

Salil Parekh of Infosys received a total remuneration of Rs 82.6 crore, up 2.4% YoY. His base pay, retirement benefits and performance-based bonus accounted for 38.6% of his total pay. The larger chunk of his pay came from stock awards exercised during the year. Under Parekh’s leadership, Infosys secured numerous large deals during the year, half of which were new deals.

Wipro’s CEO Srinivas Pallia took home Rs 49.6 crore in FY26, about 0.4% of the company’s profit. His pay included a fixed salary of Rs 29 crore, with the rest from performance-based rewards.

Some CEOs took a bigger slice of profits

CEOs in personal products, real estate, pharmaceuticals and auto sectors earned higher pay packages relative to their companies’ FY26 profits. Some executives received significant pay hikes.

FMCG company Marico paid its CEO Saugata Gupta Rs 47.3 crore, accounting for 2.7% of the company’s annual profit. His total pay rose 20.7% from the previous year, with more than half coming from exercised stock options.

Sudhir Sitapati, MD & CEO of Godrej Consumer, took home Rs 31.5 crore, about 1.7% of the company’s annual net profit. His remuneration, however, fell 10.2% from the previous year. The company's stock tanked earlier this week after Sitapati abruptly resigned, shortly after his tenure was extended by another five years.

Dabur paid CEO Mohit Malhotra Rs 15.4 crore. Despite taking on the Global CEO role, Malhotra’s pay rose just 5% during the year, slightly below the median hike.

Mahindra Lifespace’s Amit Sinha earned Rs 36 crore, about 12% of the company’s profit. Stock awards from the parent company, Mahindra & Mahindra, accounted for three-fourths of his total pay. Under Sinha’s leadership, the company has expanded its development pipeline fivefold since he took the helm in FY23.

Gaurav Pandey of Godrej Properties received Rs 23.2 crore, four times his pay in the previous year. Most of the increase came from his performance bonus. During the year, the company achieved its highest-ever booking value, up 16%, while Pandey’s compensation amounted to 1.3% of the company’s profit.

Kiran S Divi of Divi’s Laboratories received Rs 34.8 crore, 96% of which came from profit-linked incentives. 

Dr. Satyanarayana Chava, CEO of Laurus Labs, received Rs 24.8 crore, or 2.8% of the company’s annual profit. His pay surged 88% from the previous year, with a significant portion coming from bonuses as the company’s EBITDA jumped 64%.

CEO Pranay Godha received an 11% pay hike, taking his compensation at Ipca Laboratories to Rs 10 crore. The increase came as the company’s net profit rose 51%.

JK Tyre paid CEO Anshuman Singhania Rs 39 crore, about 5% of the company’s annual profit. Three-fourths of his pay came from commissions linked to profitability. The company’s profit surged 50% in FY26.

Ashok Leyland CEO Shenu Agarwal earned Rs 18.2 crore, almost entirely as salary. His pay jumped 48% in FY26. The company also posted its highest-ever commercial vehicle sales, beating its previous record from FY19.

Sona Comstar CEO Vivek Vikram Singh took home Rs 15 crore in FY26, nearly four times his pay a year earlier. A third of his pay came from performance-linked stock awards. When China restricted exports of rare-earth magnets, a key input for electric vehicle motors, Singh’s team redesigned Sona Comstar’s traction motors in just four weeks without missing customer commitments. He also helped plug a Rs 300 crore revenue gap after a major customer’s new model underperformed, bringing in 31 new programmes and three new customers.

Bank CEOs earn a smaller piece of net profits

CEO remuneration at the country’s top banks was less than 0.05% of their FY26 profits. For ICICI Bank’s CEO, the figure is higher when exercised stock options are included.

HDFC Bank CEO Sashidhar Jagdishan took home Rs 15 crore, up more than 25% from the previous year.

Sandeep Bakhshi, CEO of ICICI Bank, received Rs 10.6 crore. With stock awards exercised during the year, his total pay rose to Rs 39 crore.

Axis Bank CEO Amitabh Chaudhry earned Rs 10.3 crore. Half of his pay was base salary, while 20% came from performance bonuses earned in previous years and paid out in FY26.