From starting off in the 80s, it took Gautam Adani three decades to replace Mukesh Ambani as India's wealthiest man, and the third richest globally. Indian-origin tech bigwigs from Sundar Pichai of Alphabet to Microsoft Chairman Satya Nadella garnered global acclaim but not the same cash as the Reliance Industries boss. But Ravi Kumar, who has replaced Brian Humphries as the CEO of IT giant Cognizant, is now set to earn more than Mukesh Ambani.
Who is Ravi Kumar?
The engineer from Shivaji University, Kolhapur and an MBA from St Xavier's, has bagged a Rs 57 crore per annum package at Cognizant. This means that the former Infosys President will earn four times of what Mukesh Ambani was earning at Rs 15 crore a year as of 2020. After that year, the chairman of the yarn to fiber optic conglomerate, has opted to forego his salary for two years in a row.
Paid higher, but still not in the same league?
But just because Ravi Kumar has a higher salary, that won't be making him wealthier than the Ambanis. The business clan owns almost 50 per cent stake in Reliance Industries Limited, with interests across sectors. On the other hand Ravi Kumar is getting stock returns worth Rs 40 crore, from the IT firm Cognizant, where 95 per cent stakes are held by institutional investors.
Top CEOs still far from the tycoon
To further put things in perspective, India's richest CEO Ignatius Navil Noronha of DMart's parent firm Avenue Supermarts, earns more than Rs 100 crore per annum. He had a 2 per cent stake in the firm and surpassed Rs 7,000 crore in net worth, after selling a part of it. Compared to that Mukesh Ambani's family has almost 50 per cent stake in RIL and his own net worth is more than Rs 7 lakh crore.
