Despite Make in India, manufacturing sector feeble for IIT placements

The government has announced an annual corpus of Rs 250 crore for ‘Make in India’ research work across all Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), but the success of the campaign has not translated into better placements by the core manufacturing sector.

From an increase in the number of invites to pushing for Day-1 slots during final placements, the IITs have been trying to tap the core manufacturing sector, buoyed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Make in India’ campaign. Yet, the economic slowdown and weakened job scenario mean responses from core manufacturing firms have begun dwindling.

According to IITs, the ideal share of profiles emerging from the core manufacturing sector, which includes the likes of engineering, procurement and construction, infrastructure, automobiles, as well as research & development (R&D), tends to be 50-60 per cent, a trend seen last year, too.  

CHALLENGING EXPECTATIONS

• Ideal share of core manufacturing sector among all profiles: 50-60%
• Anticipated share: 35-50%
• IITs ask students to choose better slots like Day 1 for core manufacturing firms
• Manufacturing firms find meeting students’ expectations of compensation a challenge
• Students expect Rs 12-18 lakh yearly; most of the firms look at offering Rs 5-10 lakh

This year, however, responses from companies from the sector that are being invited for final placements have not been so bullish.  

Based on the responses so far, IITs anticipate the share of profiles from the core manufacturing sector to be anywhere between 35 per cent and 50 per cent. However, in a bid to counter the trend and hoping to cash in on Make in India, IITs have been inviting more firms since last year.

“A trend we have noticed so far is that the core manufacturing sector is not so bullish about placements this year. Ideally, we would like the core sector profiles to be 50-60 per cent of the total profiles. Last year was particularly good with the core sector (including R&D and other technical roles) being around 60 per cent of the total profiles offered. This year, it is likely to be around 50 per cent,” said V Babu, advisor (training & placement) and professor, department of mechanical engineering at IIT Madras.

On the other hand, IIT Kharagpur sources peg the share of profiles from core manufacturing sector this year at 35-40 per cent, against 50 per cent last year.

Efforts to reach out to the manufacturing sector had begun last year when IITs, like the one in Mumbai, decided to offer Day-1 placement slots to manufacturing companies, alongside consulting and financial firms.  

This year too, IITs in Chennai and Kharagpur confirmed similar efforts to ease placement process for the manufacturing sector will continue this year.

“We have encouraged many manufacturing companies to come and also asked students to give them favourable slots,” said Babu.

However, apart from a weak job scenario, the other reason for a decline in core manufacturing profiles is uncompetitive compensation packages.

“Students at IITs usually expect competitive compensation (annual) packages between Rs 12 lakh and Rs 18 lakh. However, most of the core manufacturing sector this year have shown an indication of packages in the range of Rs 5-8 lakh or at the most Rs 10 lakh. Unable to match student expectations, some of the firms have evinced interest in recruiting from other engineering colleges, including National Institutes of Technology,” said an institute source at IIT Kharagpur.

So far, the institute has invited about 350 firms across sectors, with a large share from the core manufacturing sector. Of these, 200 firms have expressed willingness so far to participate in the final placements.

Meanwhile, among the top sectors during final placements this year, IITs anticipate data analytics and technology profiles from regular marquee firms like Google, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung and Oracle, among others, to rule the roost.