Infosys Chairman Nandan Nilekani will not take any salary

Newly-appointed Infosys chairman Nandan Nilekani will not draw any salary for his services at the company. This is his second stint with Infosys. Co-founder and former Chief Executive Nilekani had left the organisation in 2009. He returned to Infosys on August 24 to head the IT major after former CEO Vishal Sikka put down his papers. His exit came in the backdrop of reports that the Infosys founders were not satisfied with the way some of the decisions were being taken by the Infy Board.

Infosys in a filing to the BSE said: "His (Nilekani) last drawn remuneration for the fiscal 2010 in which he ceased to be a director was Rs. 34 lakhs." Nilekani holds 0.93 per cent stake in Infosys. Infosys, however, has also clarified that "UB Pravin Rao will continue to hold the position of Chief Operating Officer for which he will continue to receive the remuneration as approved by the shareholders vide postal ballot concluded on March 31, 2017."

Rao will not receive any additional compensation for his role as the Interim-Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director.

Earlier this year, the IT service provider was in news for giving unusual hike to its top executives. UB Pravin Rao who is currently serving as interim-CEO got over 33 per cent hike in annual compensation. Not only that, the Infosys gave severance pay of Rs 12 crore to its former CFO Rajiv Bansal.

These two decisions of the Board did not go well with the founders. Speaking on the hike to Pravin Rao, NR Murthy said: "The impact of such a decision (compensation hike) is likely to erode the trust and faith of the employees in the management and the board."

On Rajiv Bansal's severance pay, former Board member Mohandas Pai said that never before in the history of Infosys someone had got this much money for leaving the company. Narayana Murthy had also questioned the large payment to Rajiv Bansal and termed it a 'hush money'.

All these decisions were taken under former Infosys CEO Vishal Sikka who last month decided to quit saying that he was personally attacked. After Sikka's exit, it was felt that someone was needed who could fix the governance issue at Infosys.

Then Nandan was brought back. Soon after taking over as Chairman, Nilekani told the investors that he was committed to the highest standard of corporate governance and would bring back the firm on super-stable high growth path.