IITs smile as MNCs return to campuses

Offers, high ones, are coming in before placements officially start.

Companies are back in business at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). Though final placements begin only from December 1 on the campuses, multinational companies have started showering students with plum job offers.

Tower Research Capital, a financial services company from New York, has confirmed participation at IIT Kanpur and said it will make its highest offer at Rs 44.5 lakh per annum to the best candidate — an over 100 per cent increase over last year’s highest salary offer of Rs 21.5 lakh. The company will make this offer to students during the final placements.

The premier institutes are hopeful that their graduates this year can expect a 30-40 per cent salary hike from last year, when the average offers saw a 30 per cent drop to around Rs 6 lakh, due to the global recession and hiring freeze announced by information technology (IT) companies.

“Placements this year certainly look better than last year. We have invited around 1,200 companies on the campus against 800 last year,” said a placement committee member from IIT Roorkee. IIT Roorkee will place around 1,200 students this year.

At IIT Kharagpur, the highest salary offered to the batch of 2009 remained the same as last year, at Rs 22 lakh per annum, while the average salary for students dipped to Rs 6 lakh per annum from Rs 7.44 lakh per annum last year. “The placement scene looks good and we expect around 30 per cent increase in the average salary levels of students this year,” said a placement committee member.

At IIT Madras, the institute is contacting more companies this year. “We have sent out 800 invitations to companies, of which 100 have confirmed participation. Last year, we received 180 companies for the placements season, out of 500 invitations.” The total number of students at IIT Madras this year is around 1,000.

Last year, placements at these premier engineering institutes were relatively subdued. The IITs were able to achieve only around 75-80 per cent placements and many students, according to the institutes, opted for higher studies or jobs in teaching.

IITs said that IT majors such as Microsoft, Adobe, Yahoo, Amazon, Oracle and Intel have confirmed participation on the campus. Consulting and investment banking companies include names like JPMorgan Chase, Deloitte, Deutsche Bank and Credit Suisse. Others which would participate on the campus include manufacturing major Caterpillar and FMCG major Nestle, among others.

However, regular recruiter Schlumberger might be absent form the campus this year, as it has not confirmed participation. Schlumberger had been one of the highest paying companies on the campuses so far.

A total of 3,031 students from seven IITs were recruited by MNCs through campus selection in 2008, according to figures sourced from the Union ministry of human resources.

However, in 2009, the number had almost halved to 1,606, since the effects of the global slowdown had kicked in. For instance, while in 2008, 593 students were selected from IIT Bombay, this year only 381 students of the institute were selected by MNCs. And while 633 students from IIT Delhi were recruited by MNCs last year, the number fell to 390 this year.