Tech Mahindra CEO FY26 pay climbs 12% to Rs 67.5 crore

Tech Mahindra’s latest annual report reveals that Managing Director and CEO Mohit Joshi received an 11.76% increase in his total compensation package, climbing to ₹67.55 crore for the fiscal year 2025-26.

The bump vaults him past the bosses of rival heavyweights like TCS and Wipro, cementing his position as one of the highest-paid leaders in India’s IT services corridor.

1. Inside Joshi’s Compensation Structure

The CEO’s total pay packet is heavily weighted toward variable equity gains rather than a static base salary. When stripping out Employee Stock Ownership Plans (ESOPs), his core cash-based remuneration actually grew by an even higher 20.39%.

The ₹67.55 crore haul breaks down into three key corporate tiers:

• Fixed Salary: ~₹17.00 crore (£1.36 million)
• Performance-Linked Bonus: ~₹13.90 crore (£1.11 million)
• Exercised ESOPs/Stock Gains: ~₹36.65 crore (£2.93 million) (Joshi exercised 2,35,364 stock options during the financial year)

                       [ Mohit Joshi Remuneration Blueprint — FY26 ]

  Fixed Salary   █████████████ ~₹17.00 Cr
  Perf. Bonus    ███████████ ~₹13.90 Cr
  ESOP Gains     ████████████████████████████████ ~₹36.65 Cr  ──► Total: ₹67.55 Crore

2. The Divergence: Boardroom vs. Shop Floor

While the corner office enjoyed double-digit growth, the financial report highlights a stark internal disparity that has drawn sharp union and industry attention:

• The Median Pay Gap: Joshi’s total compensation for the fiscal year stands at an astonishing 1,085.27 times the median salary of a standard Tech Mahindra employee.
• Employee Pay Deflation: This massive multiple widened as the company’s baseline workforce experienced a 4.89% contraction in median employee remuneration over the same twelve-month window.
• Headcount and Hiring Slowdown: Tech Mahindra closed out the fiscal year with a permanent headcount of 119,337 employees. Management indicated that upcoming talent acquisition pipelines will remain highly selective, pointing toward structural adjustments and AI-driven productivity gains.

3. How the IT Leadership Leaderboard Shakes Out

Joshi’s turnaround-linked compensation pushes him to the top of the middle-tier pack, though he still trails the absolute peak of the Indian technology hierarchy:

Indian IT Enterprise	CEO / Chief Executive Officer	Reported FY26 Remuneration
HCLTech	C Vijayakumar	₹94.60 crore (Highest recorded sector peak from FY25)
Infosys	Salil Parekh	₹82.60 crore
Tech Mahindra	Mohit Joshi	₹67.55 crore
Wipro	Srinivas Pallia	₹49.60 crore
TCS	K Krithivasan	₹28.00 crore

4. Operational Backing Behind the Payout

The board’s Nomination and Remuneration Committee justified the aggressive pay targets by pointing to a sharp operational rebound under Project Fortius—the company’s multi-year structural turnaround program launched in 2024:

The Turnaround Financials: For the full fiscal year, Tech Mahindra reported overall revenue of ₹56,815 crore (up 7.2%), while annual net profits climbed 13.2% to touch ₹4,811 crore. Crucially, operating margins expanded by a healthy 290 basis points to finish at 12.6%.

In his message to shareholders, Group Chairman Anand Mahindra (who took a comparatively modest ₹1.52 crore) reasserted that the enterprise is entering FY27 with its highest backlog of large-deal bookings in over a decade. He noted that Tech Mahindra has effectively embedded generative AI into 90% to 95% of active engagements across its largest client accounts via its proprietary agentic platform, Orion, positioning the firm to navigate global spending headwinds far more effectively.