# Teen AI prodigy pays father Rs 2 lakh salary each month 2026-08-26T06:07:26+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Raul John Aju, a 16-year-old artificial intelligence prodigy from Kerala, pays his father a monthly salary of Rs 2 lakh from his earnings. The teenager is the founder and CEO of an AI-driven business solutions startup that builds chatbots and automation tools for small and medium enterprises. Aju has been coding since age nine and launched his first commercial product at 13. His company now counts several corporate clients and generates enough revenue to sustain the arrangement. Aju's father quit his own job to manage his son's business operations. The teenager plans to pursue a Bachelor's in Business Administration degree while continuing to run the startup. He aims to expand into international markets over the next two years. ## Indian Opinion Analysis India's Income Tax Act requires a minor's income to be clubbed with that of the parent if the child is financially dependent, unless the minor has a genuine disability or owns a business inherited from a deceased parent. Aju's formal employment at his father's firm thus sits in an unusual legal space: the father pays tax on the salary as a business expense, while Aju files a separate return with a lower tax slab. This structure works only if the salary is proportionate to the work done and the minor is demonstrably not a mere conduit. The Income Tax Department has the power to scrutinise such arrangements under the general anti-avoidance rules introduced in the 2016 Finance Act. Aju's next milestone is his Bachelor's in Business Administration admission, which will test whether the setup remains viable once he is legally an adult. ## Coverage - gulfnews.com Led with the salary-payment angle, framing the story as human-interest achievement rather than policy or legal analysis This brief was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: income tax department, Kerala, Raul John Aju, startup Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/teen-ai-prodigy-pays-father-rs-2-lakh-salary-each-month/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/teen-ai-prodigy-pays-father-rs-2-lakh-salary-each-month/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/