CEOs GET RICHER

Dr Nitin Mehta (MSc, PhD, FICN, Dip. In Lib.Sc. & Hosp. Admn.)

How much is too much for CEOs? Our Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh aired his views on this subject in the context of the prevailing situation , vast poverty and a teeming underclass. Which ironically raised a furore. This led to an as expected briefing about misinterpretation of the statement .This was in this early June, later that month, Orlando Sentinel carried out a survey of top corporate honchos in Central Florida. Top honchos make 411 times what the average workers do annually .The gap is 10 times greater than 25 yrs ago. The report said , the 96 executives are ranked from highest-to-

Lowest paid, - total reported compensation - $ 131,248,873 to no1 . Robert Nardelli to

Ronald Kaplan $ 145,100., with Indra K. Nooyi, Pepsico, $ 9,377,119. at no 40.

The more corporate here pays its top executives, the more it raises the shock and ire of average wage earners .That should not be surprising in a nation where more and more workers are finding difficult to get raise .Experts say, too often ,CEOs seem to be cashing in at the company’s expense .The scenario in our cannot be different as protests are heard from time to time. The reported lavish and extravagant lifestyles of these neo-rich raises eyebrows when people remember the abolition of the said rajashahi days.

In India, the CEOs are paid less as compared to other countries says another World Pay Report published recently. They are paid at least $ 30,000 less than those paid in the emerging BRIC countries, as reported recently in World Pay Report.

They are reportedly paid in India about $ 92,750 – disposable income as compared to their peers in Russia $ 157,348, $ 126, 281 in China and $ 123,766 in Brazil.. The report also mentions a pay increase in India may be in tune of double digit i.e. 15 – 20%, but still our country is 37 th in 47 countries.

As we go into celebrating another Independence Day next month, in a country like ours, has vast poverty - rich are getting richer and middle class almost getting wiped out , and vast majority are coming under BPL – below poverty line.,

The members of new Indian elite – businessmen and politicians were supposed to be more prudent than the legendary rajas with their palaces and excess. And they were supposed to be more mindful of the increasingly sensitive politics of wealth .However, all these said to be neo-rich show the spirit of the rajas is back with a bang.