Interesting. I have been living in Chennai for some time and had no idea salaries in Bangalore could get that high for people choosing to stay on development and not move into management. So I guess what you're saying is since it's a less popular career track, companies that want that kind of experience pay well to get it
As a dev at msft in Hyderabad, I know that salaries around 100k (gross, not base) are quite possible for senior devs with over a decade of experience. However, we need some perspective here. There are 2.5 million people working in the IT-BPO industry in India. Of those a mere 100k work in product companies (domestic or MNC captives). My rough estimate is that about 1-2k of this 100k are developers making 100k USD. Outside of product companies (2.5 million - 100k), in the IT service companies, about one in every 300-400 guys makes $100k - and that guy is almost always a senior management guy.
Also, while a few make $100k, $50k is common for people with over a decade of good experience - but do remember that there are relatively very few folks (<5-10% of the industry) in India with over a decade of experience.
"companies that want that kind of experience pay well to get it" is a very concise way to put it. Yes that was exactly what I was trying to say. I guess I am also saying that if you are really good (which is rare by definition) you'll find (these days) that there are more companies (than there used to be) who are looking.
