| The Richest Indians |
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India's
best paid managers Company owners are paid the best salaries, but 43 professional managers were paid more than Rs 1 crore BS
Research Bureau It could be millions of dollars in the US, but how can an Indian company afford to pay that much? Even if the company is willing, the rupee is weak. Balancing all these aspects, we feel a seven figure annual salary would be a bare minimum. It helps, of course, if you're the owner of the company. Small wonder that the highest paid in this country are also those who are the owners of their companies. In 2002-2003, at least 65 men - including 43 professional managers - were paid salaries of over Rs 1 crore per annum. The Ambani brothers - Mukesh and Anil - head the list. Mukesh Ambani, thanks to his shouldering the responsibilities of being chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, was paid Rs 12.18 crore last year, taking home over a cool Rs 1 crore a month. His brother Anil made Rs 3 lakh less, for being the vice-chairman and managing director of the company. In 2001-2002, they were paid a mere Rs 7.2 crore each, which means they got a 70 per cent increment in 2002-2003, not bad at all. And in case anybody thinks that's a lot of money, remember the combined salaries of the brothers was a mere 0.6 per cent of Reliance Industries' net profit. The Ambanis also pay their executive directors handsomely, with two of them - N R Meswani and H R Meswani - being paid Rs 3.14 crore each. Hero Honda Motors paid 6.48 per cent of its net profits to its chairman and three other promoter-executives. Chairman Brijmohan Lall Munjal, ranked third in the list of top salary earners, received Rs 9.53 crore. His son, Pawan Kant Munjal, executive director, was paid Rs 9.40 crore. The two joint managing directors and Honda representatives, Akio Kazusa and Kazumi Yanagida, were paid Rs 9.37 crore and Rs 9.32 crore, respectively. The Japanese don't come cheap. Setting an example to other promoter-managers was Dr K Anji Reddy, chairman and promoter of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, who, believe it or not, took a salary cut of over 50 per cent. Dr Reddy took home a salary of a mere Rs 4.62 crore in 2002-2003, down sharply from Rs 9.85 crore in the previous year. The salary cut was proabaly due to Dr Reddy's net profit declining to Rs 392.09 crore in 2002-2003 from Rs 459.65 crore in 2002. Unfortunately, as a result of that noble gesture, Dr Reddy slipped to the ninth position in our super-achievers list from the top position he held last year. In fact, our top 65 managers take home a combined salary which is a modest 1.19 per cent of the total net profits of their companies. Their combined salaries increased by 28.54 per cent in 2002-2003 to Rs 162.91 crore. But it's not only owners of companies who get paid Rs 1 crore and more a year. Many professional managers have reached that level, the list being headed by Vivek Paul, vice chairman of Wipro. He was the most highly paid non-promoter manager in 2003 who, with an annual salary of Rs 5.16 crore, ranked number eight in the overall list. He had topped the professional managers list in 2001, but slipped last year. Paul replaces last year's top manager, G V Prasad of Dr Reddy's Laboratories, who has fallen to number 17 now. Prasad gets Rs 2.34 crore. Which company has the most managers in the Rs 1 crore and above salary list? Infosys Technologies comes out on top with 10 of its executives getting more than Rs 1 crore per annum. Hindustan Lever and Reliance Industries ranked second with five each, followed by Hero Honda Motors with four and Dr Reddy's Laboratories, ICICI Bank, Motor Industries (Mico) and Ranbaxy Laboratories with three executives each. And with 15 new names added to the list of top salary earners this year, maybe it's time to ask for that Rs 1 crore. |
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