Cognizant, offering ₹2.5 LPA to freshers, is led by India’s highest-paid CEO. His salary is…
IT giant Cognizant, currently under fire for a job listing offering ₹2.52 lakh per annum to freshers, is led by India’s highest-paid CEO - Ravi Singisetti
IT giant Cognizant, currently under fire for a job listing offering ₹2.52 lakh per annum to freshers, is led by India’s highest-paid CEO. Cognizant CEO Ravi Kumar Singisetti received $22.56 million (approximately ₹186 crore) in compensation last year, according to a report in Mint.

Ravi Kumar Singisetti, 52, took over as chief executive of Cognizant in January 2023. His one-time stock reward of $20.25 million (nearly ₹169.1 crore) last year made him India’s highest-paid CEO in the IT sector in 2023.
The Mint report from April this year said that Singisetti's compensation stands at 556 times the median salary of Cognizant employees. However, this staggering figure has come under fire after a recent job listing by Cognizant offered the ‘unlivable’ wage of ₹2.52 lakh to new employees.
“Cognizant offering 2.25 lpa to recent graduates while the ceo’s salary is 186 crores, making him the highest salaried ceo in India,” X user Swastika Yadav posted on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter. “They were offering the same ‘exciting’ 2.25 lakhs two decades back as well. Why can’t we have minimum wage criteria in all the sectors?” Yadav questioned.
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 ₹18,000 to ₹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.
ABOUT THE AUTHORSanya JainSanya Jain is an Assistant Editor with Hindustan Times Digital. She has nearly a decade of experience in covering offbeat stories that speak to the everyday experience - from viral videos to human interest copies that spark conversation. Her interests stretch across business, pop culture, social media trends, entertainment and global affairs. Before joining Hindustan Times, Sanya spent two years with Moneycontrol and five years with NDTV. She holds an undergraduate degree in English literature from St Stephen’s College, Delhi, and a master’s in journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications, Mumbai. Sanya has a sharp eye for spotting emerging trends and looking for newsworthy angles to elevate viral posts into meaningful narratives. She was the first one, for example, to cover Narayana Murthy’s remark on 70-hour work weeks that sparked a national conversation. She is equally at ease writing about business leaders as about the common man, about issues of national importance and memes that amuse social media. Sanya enjoys speaking with content creators, newsmakers and entrepreneurs to transform everyday moments into engaging, slice-of-life stories that resonate with readers. When she is not working, Sanya can be found curled up with a good book. Born and raised in Lucknow, she has spent the last several years in Delhi. She is deeply interested in animal welfare and now spends a lot of her time running after her destructive orange cat.Read More

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