Hiring signals
AI fresher pay hits ₹21 LPA at Infosys — ₹45–100 LPA at FAANG India offices
Infosys Specialist Programmer L3 is the highest entry-level pay in IT services. FAANG India offers for IIT grads are 5–10× standard IT services. The gap is widening fast.
Fresher pay in Indian tech has split into four very different tiers in 2026.
Tier 1 — Standard IT services: ₹3.5–4.5 LPA. TCS, Infosys, Wipro, Cognizant for general engineering trainee programs. These are still the largest by hiring volume.
Tier 2 — Specialist tracks within IT services: Infosys Specialist Programmer L3 is now at ₹21 LPA, the highest entry-level offer among large IT services firms. Targets AI, cloud, security specialisations. TCS and Wipro have analogous narrow tracks.
Tier 3 — Indian product companies and well-funded startups: ₹18–35 LPA for strong CS graduates. Razorpay, Postman, PhonePe, Swiggy, Zomato.
Tier 4 — FAANG and top-tier Indian offices of Western product companies: ₹45–100 LPA for IIT graduates and equivalent. Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Atlassian, Salesforce.
AI specialisation adds a 30–80% premium across all four tiers. The widest gaps are at the entry end — a B.Tech fresher with strong AI work can earn 5–10× a peer on a generic track. That gap is widening, not closing. The lever for early-career engineers is unambiguous: pick a specialisation, build production-grade work, target tier 2+ employers.
Source: News18 · Dheya
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