Akshata Murty’s ₹500 crore loss to Sundar Pichai’s ₹1,854 cr pay: Top business news of the week

While British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s wife Akshata Murty’s wealth plunged by over ₹500 crores, Google CEO Sundar Pichai’s pay soared by over ₹1,854 crores and Tata Consultancy Services emerged as the best company for career growth as per a job platform’s report this week. This and more in our weekly wrap of the top five business stories that made headlines:

1. Akshata Murty, daughter of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy lost about £49 million (around ₹500 crore) Monday after shares in the company tanked after weaker-than-expected March quarter earnings, as per a Bloomberg report. Murty, who is also UK PM Rishi Sunak’s wife, owns a 0.94% stake in the Indian software giant, which crashed 9.4%, the biggest drop since March 2020. Read more
2. In job search platform LinkedIn’s 2023 list of best companies to grow one’s career, Tata Consultancy Services bagged the top spot. The annual list was the 7th edition in this category and included a total of 25 companies including Amazon, Reliance Industries, Zepto among others. Read more
3. Amid cost-cutting measures and 12,000 job cuts by Google in January, CEO Sundar Pichai took home $226 million salary ( ₹1,854 crore approximately), including stock awards of about $218 million in 2022, as per the latest filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The median total compensation for Alphabet employees was $279,802 in 2022. Pichai’s compensation was 808 times that amount, making him one of the world’s highest-paid corporate leaders. Read more
4. Walt Disney Co. plans another big round of job cuts next week, eliminating thousands of positions, including about 15% of the staff in its entertainment division, according to Bloomberg. The cuts will span TV, film, theme parks and corporate positions, and affect every region where Disney operates. Read more
5. India and Thailand on Thursday reviewed the progress of talks on connecting the Unified Payment Interface (UPI) with Prompt Pay Service of the south-east Asian country and the settlement of trade transactions in local currency, the commerce ministry said. The issues were discussed during the 13th meeting of the India-Thailand Joint Trade Committee. Read more