Even in these times of economic gloom, there are chief executive officers who are earning huge salaries. Some time ago, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had sparked off a debate when he suggested that CEO salaries should be curbed. That was when there was no economic crisis anywhere in sight.

Now even the epitome of capitalism, the United States, has endorsed those views, and American policymakers want CEO compensation to be kept at manageable levels. Meanwhile, here is a list of the highest paid CEOs in India.

Note: Market cap as on February 16, 2009

Mukesh D Ambani

Rank: No 1

Designation: Chairman and managing director

Company: Reliance Industries Ltd

Compensation: Rs 44.02 crore (Rs 440.2 million)

Reliance market cap: Rs 193,076.66 crore (Rs 1930.77 billion)

Background: Mukesh Ambani has been ranked India's richest person, and the world's fifth richest man, by business magazine Forbes. His net worth is approximately $50 billion. With a personal stake of 48 per cent, he is the largest shareholder of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector enterprise.

Ambani, who joined Reliance in 1981, led the creation of the world's largest grassroots petroleum refinery at Jamnagar, Gujarat, built at a cost of Rs 100,000 crores (Rs 1,000 billion).

His fortune has seen a 62 per cent drop since January 2008, but he still ranks No 3 in Forbes' list of world's wealthiest CEOs.