Mohandas Pai, Bala back Narayana Murthy

Backing Infosys co-founder N R Narayana Murthy’s view that pay hike to COO U B Pravin Rao was “not proper,” ex-director T V Mohandas Pai said the salary in this case is “spectacular” but performance is not.

Alleging that Infosys’ board was ‘misguided’, former Infosys  Chief Finance Officer said the “fundamental problem” was the pay hike given earlier to CEO Vishal Sikka “without any justification”, because of which other executives were also expecting higher pay.

He said salary levels in India cannot be compared with that in the US. “I totally agree with Murthy that it was not proper. We should have Indian norm for compensation; we can't follow American norm, we (Infosys) are not an American company,” Pai said.

Pay hike terrible: Bala
Former Infosys CFO V Balakrishnan said a pay hike for a top executive is “terrible for any leadership” when subordinates were being asked to “sacrifice” on wages.

He reiterated the need for reconstituting Infosys board, stating that the golden standards of governance and value system that Infosys was known for is “being decimated under the current leadership”.

He added that Infosys Chairman R Seshasayee should step down and the board reconstituted to ensure the governance and value system of the company are protected.