Who’s paying such crazy salaries in India esp in AI

This isn't India, it's in USD Still crazy though

Places that do machine learning research are rare in India, and they typically require a PhD or a master's with a lot of publications. That being said, the pay is definitely NOT as much as the US. There are startups like Observe AI offers 60-70L CTC to Tier 1 freshers. Microsoft research (MSR) is considered one of the best and offers around 70-80L CTC for fresh PhDs

Source https://www.teamrora.com/post/ai-researchers-salary-negotiation-report-2023