Infosys justifies COO pay hike, says effective rise only 1.4 per cent

New Delhi: Infosys today vehemently defended the hike in the compensation of its COO U B Pravin Rao, saying the revision was arrived at after benchmarking against peers.

On the objections raised by co-founder and former chairman N R Narayana Murthy, Infosys, the country's second-largest software exporter, said it views the statement by Murthy as "important feedback" and will continue to work with all stakeholders to ensure long-term interest of the company.

Justifying the over 33 per cent hike in Rao's compensation, Infosys said the cash component has decreased from Rs 5.2 crore to Rs 4.6 crore and it is only the performance-based component that has been raised from 45 per cent to 63 per cent.

The company said considering the four-year vesting period of the stocks given to Rao, the hike came to just 1.4 per cent for 2017-18.