Genius needs to be rewarded.

"CEO compensation that hit a new high this year is making it hugely expensive and unsustainable for companies that are seeking leadership changes, say executive search firms," ET. "Boards handsomely rewarded CEOs of companies that recorded strong profit and sales growth and saw capital infusion despite the pandemic. Several top CEOs and managing directors got an average 11-15% increase in salary and perks in 2021-22, with a few getting as much as 25-45% jump, according to data collected from annual company reports by Primeinfobase.com." How have these managers pulled off this miracle despite lockdowns, rising prices and falling growth? In December 2020, Mahesh Vyas wrote that "listed companies have made their highest ever profits in the midst of a severe lockdown". "Net profit increased by 568.5%." Firms cut costs on raw materials and finished goods, "However it is worth noting that and is somewhat intriguing that firms considered it fit to cut and substantially contain their wage bill although they were making huge profits in the quarter . A cut in the wage bill could mean a combination of layoffs and wage rate cuts." One way of reducing the wage bill is to employ gig workers. "Average gig worker earnings are approximately Rs 18,000 per month, with assured pay models compensating higher on average than more flexible pay-per-task models," ET. "In a given month, over 15% of workers faced a deficit of Rs 5,000 on average," "Also 6.6% have current or outstanding loans, 11.5% have active EMIs, and 26.3% borrow from the peers they work.  with." "By the end of 2020, CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy) data show that of the permanent salaried workers (estimated to be 11% of the total pre-pandemic workforce), only four out of 10 employees remained salaried. Half of them...moved into informal work - either as self-employed (30%), casual wage (10%) or informal salaried (9%) workers," wrote Shriya Mohan. In garment factories in Tamil Nadu, "Firstly, women workers above 40 years of age have been sacked in the wake of the pandemic. The workload on the younger lot has tripled for the same fixed monthly pay. Where workers stitched 50 shirt pockets or collars in an hour, they are now clocking 150." "The biggest cut in expenditure was on interest expenses on debt. The total interest bill of listed corporates fell 8.4% from a year earlier, or a trillion rupees, to Rs 11.5 trillion in FY22," wrote Vivek Kaul. "The interest expenses fell primarily because of RBI cutting the repo rate during the pandemic and banks reducing lending rates." "Listed corporates benefitted tremendously", but "the savers had to bear this cost in the form of lower interest rates on their savings". With companies and managers raking in enormous moolah, the government got its cut in direct taxes which "reached and all time high of Rs 14.09 lakh crore (Rs 14.09 trillion) in financial year 2021-22 against Rs 9.45 lakh crore collections in FY 2020-21," ET. So, while the RBI forced savers to shell out and companies pocketed workers' money, the government, companies and fat cats shared the booty. Genius indeed.