Gautam Adani draws less salary than his executives, know who tops the list; where do Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Bharti Mittal stand

Gautam Adani, founder and chairman of Adani Group, runs a multinational conglomerate with a workforce of approximately 36,000 employees. He drew a salary of Rs 10.41 crore in the financial year 2024-25, a remuneration which is surprisingly less than his executives within his own conglomerate. Though his salary figure rose 12 per cent from Rs 9.26 crore in FY24, he drew salaries from just two of the nine listed group companies.

According to PTI, Gautam Adani received R 2.26 crore as salary from his flagship firm Adani Enterprises Ltd(AEL). He took Rs 28 lakh in perquisites and other benefits, compounding to Rs 2.54 crore from the same flagship firm. It is comparatively more than his last drawn amount of Rs 2.46 crore the previous year. He also added Rs 7.87 crore from Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd (APSEZ), comprising Rs 1.8 crore in salary and Rs 6.07 crore as commission, which is marginally up from Rs 6.8 crore in FY24. 

As per reports, Gautam Adani’s remuneration is eclipsed by key executives including AEL CEO Vinay Prakash who earned Rs 69.34 crore contributed by Rs 4 crore and a whopping Rs 65.34 crore in performance-linked perks. APSEZ’s CEO Ashwani Gupta drew Rs 10.34 crore. Adani Green Energy MD Vneet Jaain received Rs 11.23 crore, while Jugeshinder Singh, the group’s CFO, earned Rs 10.4 crore. 

Gautam Adani’s Karan Adani drew a salary of Rs 7.09 crore from APSEZ, while brother Rajesh Adani took Rs 9.87 crore from AEL. Nephews Pranav and Sagar Adani took Rs 7.45 crore and Rs 7.5 crore, respectively. Other senior executives also received hefty salaries. Adani Total Gas CEO earned Rs 8.21 crore, Adani Energy Solutions CEO received Rs 14 crore; and Adani Power CEO took home Rs 9.16 crore in FY25.

Gautam Adani’s wealth is estimated to be at $82.5 billion (as per Bloomberg Billionaires Index), his annual salary is modest compared to his peers and subordinates. Adani, however, benefits from dividends and stock appreciation, adding to his massive net worth. According to PTI, other key business leaders like Sunil Bharti Mittal of Bharti Airtel earned Rs 32.27 crore in FY24, Rajiv Bajaj of Bajaj Auto drew Rs 53.75 crore, Pawan Munjal of Hero MotoCorp took home Rs 109 crore, L&T's S.N. Subrahmanyan earned Rs 76.25 crore, and Infosys CEO Salil Parekh topped with Rs 80.62 crore. On the other hand, Mukesh Ambani, India’s richest man, has been drawing no salary from Reliance Industries since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Before that, his remuneration was voluntarily capped at Rs 15 crore per annum.