Pathamadai Balachandran Balaji, the CFO of Tata Motors, has become the highest paid CFO within the Tata Group during FY23. Balaji played a crucial role in steering an economic turnaround for Tata Motors, resulting in the company’s first full-year profit in eight years. His remuneration during FY23 amounted to Rs 16.73 crore, a 31% increase compared to the previous fiscal year.

The decline in remuneration of Koushik Chatterjee, CFO of Tata Steel, also contributed to Balaji’s rise. Chatterjee’s remuneration decreased by 6% in FY23, reflecting Tata Steel’s reduced profit after tax.

Giridhar Sanjivi, CFO of Indian Hotels Company (IHCL), experienced the highest increase in remuneration within the group, thanks to IHCL’s return to profit after three years.

The future looks promising for the Tata Group, with planned investments of $90 billion over the next five years in various sectors, including electric vehicles, renewable energy, and aviation battery cell manufacturing.

In the Indian car market, the EV space is growimg steadily, and Tata Motors is the current leader in this segment. The car brand currently only has two passenger EVs in its lineup – Nexon EV and Tigor EV – both of which are based on the brand’s existing ICE models. Reportedly, both Nexon EV and Tigor EV currently account for around 20 per cent of the overall sales of their respective model ranges (ICE + EV). The manufacturer anticipates EVs to contribute to over 20 per cent of its total PV sales by 2027-2028. In the first quarter of CY2022, EVs have accounted for 8 per cent of Tata’s total passenger car sales. Tata Motors plans to have 10 electric cars in its lineup by 2025. It revealed two concept EVs earlier this year – Curvv EV and Avinya – which were based on the brand’s generation-2 and generation-3 platforms, respectively. Tata Avinya which will be a bespoke EV, is expected to enter production by 2025.

Tata Motors is also planning to take its EV vertical global. The Avinya concept is being planned to be introduced in “mature markets” like Europe and the US. Shailesh Chandra – MD, Tata Passenger Electric Mobility (TPEM) – believes that “in electrification everyone is on the same page, or similar state of maturity. It’s not a gap of decades unlike in the ICE world”.