Indian Companies Cutting Back on Broad-Based Equity

Options and other kinds of equity plans have been very common in the Indian technology sector. A number of other companies offer the plans as well, but not as commonly. Over the years, the number of companies granting equity awards broadly has moved up and down fairly dramatically. In the past few years, taxation of equity compensation in India has been in flux. In a new survey from ESOP Direct in India of 108 companies, the percentage of companies granting equity dropped from one-half to one-quarter. (Employee stock option plans are commonly abbreviated as ESOPs in India.) Eighty-four percent of the companies grant more than 50% of the options to senior management. Of these 30% companies grant options to only senior management. Information on obtaining the full survey is available at this link on ESOP Direct's site.