It's time India outsourced execs from the U.S.

Patni CEO gets more than Microsoft's Steve Ballmer - The Economic Times: "NEW DELHI: Patni Computer Systems, 90 times smaller than Microsoft by revenues, cannot hold a candle to the US software company on most counts. There is one notable exception though — CEO pay.

The cash portion of Patni chief executive Jeya Kumar’s compensation was twice that of Mircrosoft’s Steve Ballmer in 2009. An Australian citizen, Mr Kumar, 55, received Rs12.19 crore for the year to December 2009 compared to $1.26 million, or nearly Rs6 crore, for the fiscal to June 2009 for Mr Ballmer.

Likewise, Wipro chief Azim Premji earned Rs7.8 crore, again outshining Mr Ballmer’s pay.

Mr Kumar is part of a growing tribe of Indian executives whose salaries in terms of cash have rocketed above those of global counterparts in recent years. Vodafone Group Plc chief Vittorio Colao took home £2.6 million, or nearly Rs18.5 crore, last year. That was 20% less than the Rs23.48 crore that Sunil Mittal, chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel, received in 2009.

Similarly, Jürgen Hambrecht, chief executive of the world’s largest chemical company BASF, earned e3.37 million, or about Rs20.2 crore, around the same amount pocketed by Vivek Jain, managing director of Gujarat Fluorochem. Brijmohan Lall Munjal and Pawan Munjal of two-wheeler maker Hero Honda joined Japanese board members, joint MD Toshiaki Nakagawa and technical director Sumihisa Fukuda, to earn five times more than Takanubu Ito, the 57-year-old CEO of Honda Motor, whose pay was $1.3 million, or nearly Rs6 crore. Globalisation is driving the remuneration of Indian CXOs on a par with overseas counterparts, says Sanjiv Sachar, partner at Delhi-based executive search firm Egon Zehnder International. ..."