Persistent Systems Chief Executive Officer Sandeep Kalra's remuneration surged 162% to a record ₹389 crore in FY26, driven largely by the exercise of stock options and the depreciation of the rupee, according to a CNBC-TV18 Markets report. The figure makes Kalra the highest-paid executive in India's information technology sector.

The sharp increase illustrates how equity-linked compensation has become the dominant component of executive pay at Indian IT companies. Under Indian disclosure norms, gains realised when executives exercise allotted stock options are counted as part of their total remuneration, which can cause reported pay to jump sharply in years when large tranches of options are exercised. Currency movements can amplify such gains, as a weaker rupee raises the rupee-denominated value of dollar-linked compensation components.

Persistent Systems is a Pune-headquartered IT services company specialising in software product engineering and digital transformation services for clients across sectors including banking and financial services, healthcare, insurance, and technology. Founded in 1990, the company is listed on India's BSE and the National Stock Exchange, employs more than 20,000 people, and crossed $1 billion in annual revenue in FY24 — scale that places it among the larger mid-tier players in a sector long anchored by Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, HCLTech, Wipro and LTIMindtree. Persistent's shares have also been among the stronger performers in India's mid-cap IT space in recent years, and the value realised from option exercises moves with the share price. Kalra has led the company as CEO since 2021, when he took over the top job from founder Anand Deshpande, who moved into the role of chairman.

Executive pay at India's largest IT services firms has repeatedly placed sector CEOs among the country's highest-paid corporate leaders, with stock-linked components typically accounting for the bulk of total compensation in years when options are exercised. The previous high-water mark for the sector belonged to Wipro's then-chief executive Thierry Delaporte, whose FY23 package of roughly ₹166 crore made him India's highest-paid IT CEO at the time; Kalra's ₹389 crore more than doubles that number, and the reported 162% rise implies remuneration of about ₹148 crore in FY25.

Listed Indian companies are required under market regulator SEBI's disclosure framework to report details of key managerial personnel remuneration — including the ratio of CEO pay to median employee remuneration — in their annual reports, which is where such compensation figures surface. The same disclosures will show how the record package compares with the pay of the median Persistent employee, and future filings will indicate whether further option exercises keep reported remuneration elevated or whether it settles back toward salary-and-allowance levels.

Reported by Yoosef K (@yoosefkp on X) for CNBC-TV18 Markets. Source: CNBC-TV18