Cognisant CEO Ravi Kumar Singisetti was the highest-paid Indian executive in the IT sector last year, taking home $22.56 million (about Rs 186 crore), reported Mint.
The CEO of IT giant Cognizant who makes the highest salary in India, is under fire right now for posting a job advertising that offers fresh graduates Rs 2.52 lakh annually. The recruitment drive for recent graduates listed August 14 as the application date and promised IT enthusiasts an annual salary of Rs 2.52 lakh.
On August 13, the job posting was posted on Indian Tech & Infra's X account. “Cognizant has announced an exciting off-campus mass hiring drive, welcoming applications from candidates belonging to the 2024 batch. Application deadline – August 14. Package – INR 2.52 LPA,” it read.
52-year-old Singisetti became Cognizant's CEO in January 2023. According to the company's papers, the majority of Singisetti's pay was in the form of shares, which were valued at $20.25 million (about Rs 169.1 crore). The issuance date of these shares is April 12, 2023.
Amounts paid to Singisetti totalled 0.11% of Cognizant's $19.35 billion in sales for the fiscal year.
"Cognizant is offering Rs. 2.52 LPA for engineers! Meanwhile, a helper job at a momo shop earns Rs 3 LPA!" Amit Misra, the founder and CEO of Dazeinfo, shared on X. "Need a helper and worker," the ad reads in Hindi. "Salary is Rs 25,000". Misra did not add details of where the ad was put up, his post received close to 9,000 likes and around 250 comments.
Hundreds of others slammed Cognizant’s starting salary after the job listing went viral yesterday. “Cognizant has announced an exciting off-campus mass hiring drive, welcoming applications from candidates belonging to the 2024 batch. Application deadline - August 14. Package - INR 2.52 LPA,” popular X account Indian Tech & Infra posted, sparking outrage.
Social media users calculated that freshers would receive between Rs 18,000 to Rs 19,000 in hand after deductions - calling it “barely enough” to make ends meet in metro cities. “Wow, 2 lakhs per year? My driver makes way more than that, working just 4 days a week,” one X user posted.
“MNCs have revenues increased from Millions to Billions to Trillions. But they are giving same package to freshers as 20 years ago & not even giving yearly appraisal equal to inflation & increase in House Rental/Prices,” another pointed out.
