ISB Placements rise by 33%

MUMBAI: The 2010 batch of Indian School of Business (ISB), Hyderabad, saw a 33% increase in total number of placement offers and an 11% rise in average salary over last year, the institute said in a media statement.

“This year shows a significant improvement over last year,” said dean Ajit Rangnekar. The class comprising 568 students witnessed offers from top companies in technology, consulting and finance increase by 116%, 40% and 30%, respectively, over the last year, making them the largest recruiters on campus.

Citibank, DBS Bank, Accenture Services, Arthur D. Little Asia, Cognizant Technology Solutions, Amazon Development Centre India, United Health Group and Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories are few of the 346 recruiters.

“Last year was a traumatic year, but we still matched compensation level of 2007,” said Mr Rangnekar. “2008 was a mad year, as companies were paying far too much money. There was gross over optimism in the market. Given that in 2009 there was undue pessimism,” he added.

This year’s highlight was first-time recruiters from the green energy sector like Schneider Electric India and Wipro Eco-business.

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NITIE Placements 2010

Mumbai-based National Institute of Industrial Engineering (NITIE) has registered the highest domestic pay package of Rs 19.5 lakh a year and highest international pay package of Rs 67.5 lakh a year during its final placements.

The international placements were offered by companies like Olam International and Dubai Telecom. 

Around 90 companies participated in the placement process, offering roles in domains like supply chain, operations, marketing, finance, consulting and information technology (IT) & systems. 

Companies like Procter & Gamble, Cadbury, GE, Essar, L’Oreal, Cummins among others made pre-placement offers (PPOs), with 25 students accepting the direct route to their dream jobs. 

Other recruiters who participated in the placement process include players like PwC, Ernst and Young, Cognizant Business Consulting, Global e-Procure, Bristlecone, Capgemini, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, JPMC, Deutsche Bank, GE, ICICI Bank, YES Bank, SBI Caps and Kotak Mahindra. The profiles offered were investment banking, corporate finance, bank operations, retail banking etc. 

Meanwhile, the institute also completed summer placements for 2011, with Cadbury offering the highest stipend of Rs 1 lakh for a two-month internship. 

The summer placements for the 2009-11 batch of NITIE attracted companies like Ernts and Young, KPMG, Cognizant Business Consulting, PWC, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered Bank, Deutsche Bank, ICICI Bank, Edelweiss, Bank of India, Axis bank, Union Bank of India among others. 

HSBC offered internships to seven students, the highest for any one company in the banking and financial sector.

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100% Placements at IIM Shillong

All the 63 first-batch graduates of the youngest Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Meghalaya have got job offers, with an annual average salary of around Rs.10 lakhs and the highest pay package worth a whopping Rs.34 lakhs.

The mood is upbeat and one of utter jubilation at IIM Shillong (IIM-S). 

"We are indeed very happy with the placements considering the fact that we are the youngest IIM and had to overcome several odds like logistical problems," Arijit Majumdar, the institute's corporate relations and external affairs head, told IANS. 

Not many outside India's northeast probably know that there is an IIM in the Meghalaya capital named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility. 

Surrounded by pine trees, lush green lawns and mountains in the backdrop, the institute is functioning from the Mayurbhanj Complex -- the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa. 

"We may be logistically handicapped in terms of the distance and location, but we can boast that IIM Shillong is one of the best tech savvy campuses in the country and more than 35 percent of the recruiters offered jobs by way of video conferencing," Majumdar said. 

In the just concluded placements, recruiters, both domestic and foreign, offered good pay packagaes to the young managers. 

"The highest domestic offer annually was around Rs.1.8 million. A few of the students were offered jobs by foreign firms with salaries ranging from Rs.3.3 to 3.4 million," Majumdar said. 

The recruiters include big names such as Deloitte, Infosys, Power Finance Corporation, Jumbo Electronics of Dubai, Hewlett Packard, Essar, Shipping Corporation, TELCON, Tata Motors and Escorts. 

The job categories were varied - from IT to finance, human resources to marketing, besides other domains. 

"I am thrilled to be part of the first batch and get a reasonably good job offer. The facilities or other logistic support may not be at par with the other IIMs in the country, but the faculty here is simply exceptional," said a graduate from Assam, requesting annonymity as his recruiter demands privacy. 

The institute offers a two-year post- graduate programme in management (PGP) and plans to offer other courses like the fellow programme in management (FPM), management development programmes (MDPs) and research and consultancy, along with some short-term certificate courses. 

"Our goal is to achieve excellence in the field of managerial education, training and research. Beginning with the meticulous short-listing of candidates till the finalizing of electives for the students to specialize in, there is just one word to describe the methodology here - rigour," Ashoke K. Dutta, director of IIM-S, said. 

"The 63-strong student force, an army of corporate generals, has been trained under 'eight day' weeks, in cutting edge finance and economics, as well as on sustainability and governance," Dutta added with pride. 

The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is under way for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.

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Management schools at IITs see 10-20% jump in salary offers

While the IITs themselves are not very happy with the placements as yet, their management departments are reaping the benefits of an improving economy

Salary offers during the ongoing final placements continue to be a matter of concern at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). However, the management schools that are a part of these premier technology institutions are not affected and are seeing a 10-20 per cent jump in final as well as summer placement salaries.

These schools have been set up within the IITs, and are dedicated management schools or departments that admit students through the JMET test. While final placements at the IITs would continue till the last week of April, a few of the management schools at the IITs have completed final placements and are readying for summer placements for the first-year students.

For instance, the Department of management studies (DMS) at IIT Delhi — which is among the first B-schools in the IIT circuit to finish final placements this year — has seen the number of recruiters who participated in this year’s placement increase to 42, a substantial rise from last year’s 35. The highest salary at the institute stood at Rs 18.2 lakh, while the average was Rs 11.86 lakh. Last year, while average salary was Rs 9.4 lakh, highest salary offered was Rs 16 lakh.

Around 81 offers were made to 61 students this year. Major recruiters included investment banks such as Nomura, SBI Caps and JP Morgan Chase, as well as top notch financial recruiters such as American Express, PriceWaterhouseCoopers and Citibank. The institute also saw recruiters from leading FMCG companies like Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages, Marico and Johnson & Johnson, and industry conglomerates including RPG, General Electric (GE), among others. Aspirants in the consultancy domain saw a slew of offers from prime firms such as Deloitte Consulting, Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions and IBM. In addition, the process saw several public sector units (PSUs) such as SBI, BHEL, Shipping Corporation of India, Bank of India offering distinguished profiles.

The placements week at the management school in IIT Delhi was preceded by laterals which saw 21 students being offered coveted profiles. Average salary for laterals stood at Rs 12.14 lakh. For summer placements for the first-year students, a total of 32 companies were slotted for the current batch of 52 students. The biggest brands, most coveted profiles, multiple offers and an average stipend was Rs 48,500 (two months). Recruiters for summer placements came from various sectors including FMCG, consulting, IT, banking, manufacturing, automobile, healthcare and marketing, bringing diverse options for the students.

At the Department of Management Studies, IIT Madras, the highest salary during final placements has remained the same as last year at Rs 12 lakh, while the average salary has seen an increase this year to touch Rs 9 lakh, up from Rs 8 lakh last year, informed T J Kamalanabhan, placements chairperson of IIT Madras.

The Department of Management Studies, IIT Roorkee, has seen a 25 per cent increase in salaries this year over last year’s final placements. The highest salary this year stood at Rs 11.6 lakh offered by Deloitte, while the average stood at Rs 8.5 lakh. V K Nangia, head of the department of management students at IIT Roorkee, said, “We had around 60 students to place this year compared to 46 students last year. The economy has recovered, it seems.”

The Vinod Gupta School of Management (VGSOM) at IIT Kharagpur and Shailesh J Mehta School of Management (SJMSoM) at IIT Bombay are yet to release their final placement report for the batch of 2010. But the schools have already seen encouraging response for summer placements for the first-years. At VGSOM, the average stipend for summer placements has crossed Rs 37,000 with the highest domestic stipend at Rs 70,000, which is a jump of 20 per cent in remuneration over last year. Around 54 companies participated in the summer placement process for 98 students this year and offered diverse profiles to choose from. Students were offered profiles like corporate strategy and planning, rural banking, sports consulting, energy, environment, climate and infrastructure consulting, institutional development and media marketing and strategy besides the regular consulting, marketing, finance, operations and HR profiles.

C S Mishra, placements chairperson of VGSOM, said that a major change this year has been the change in summer internship duration from six months to two months. This change has brought about participation from many new companies besides the regular recruiters. A total of 21 new companies participated in the summer placement process this year which included big names like Axis Bank, Reckitt Benckiser, Titan, Siemens, O3 Capital, Daimler, SCI and NABARD.

At SJMSoM, around 56 companies offered diverse profiles to a batch of 98 summer interns while stipend per month remained at Rs 50,000 like last year, informed a member of the placement committee. Companies participating in the summer placements this year include Asian Paints, Cadbury, Colgate-Palmolive, Idea Cellular, among others.

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IIM-L final placements: 370 offers made

The Indian Institute of Management, Lucknow, (IIM-L) concluded its final placement process on a high note by placing 315 students, the largest-ever count for a graduating IIM batch. A total of 370 offers were made to the 315 students, including 41 pre-placement offers (PPOs) and 123 lateral offers for higher-entry placements.

IIM-L does not reveal the highest salary levels offered to its students. However, sources on the campus said the highest salary package offered this year was Rs 75 lakh by a multinational company for a general management profile.

The placement season was much better compared to 2009 when 284 offers were made to 267 students.

A total of 121 recruiting companies visited the campus this year. The number during 2008 and 2009 stood at 98 and 103, respectively.

“Several of our students have been offered senior job profiles because 90 per of our candidates had prior work experience, which is highest among all IIMs,” a placement committee member told Business Standard.

Meanwhile, the placement week saw the return of the finance and information technology (IT) sectors in a big way. At the same time, 32 first-time recruiters including Centrum, Microland, Pfizer, Siemens Information Systems Ltd, Suzlon and Thomas Cook also came head hunting to the institute.

Banks and financial sector firms led with 24 per cent of the total offers in investment banking, proprietary trading, treasury, mergers and acquisitions and global risk management. Prominent companies included Calyon Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, Nomura, Kotak Securities, ICICI Bank, Axis Bank and Yes Bank, among many others. Sales, marketing and IT/IT-enabled services sectors followed closely with 20 and 19 per cent offers, respectively.

Top recruiters, including McKinsey and Co, Procter & Gamble (P&G), Hindustan Unilever, Aditya Birla Group, Deutsche Bank, Deloitte and KPMG were among the 121 companies that participated in the placement process.

While, P&G, Goldman Sachs and Cognizant made maximum offers at 10 each, Yes Bank and Deloitte hired nine and eight candidates, respectively. PPOs were made by Boston Consulting Group, JP Morgan Chase, TAS, Diageo, Agro Tech Foods, Marico, ITC and Reckitt Benckiser.

The Higher-Entry Placement Program witnessed over 100 lateral offers by Olam International, Philips, Goldman Sachs, Yes Bank, Ernst & Young Dubai, Deloitte, Cognizant, Mindtree Consulting, IBM Consulting and Rediff, among others.

Key recruiters in the sales and marketing space included Nokia, Puma, Pepsi, Cadbury and Reckitt Benckiser among others. Conglomerates such as Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, RPG, Essar and Siva Group were prominent recruiters. Philips, Asian Paints, and Arshiya International were firms offering Supply Chain Management profiles. The PSUs, who visited the IIML campus this time, included ONGC, Power Grid, NTPC and Shipping Corporation of India, who offered lucrative profiles in Finance, HR and General Management.

 

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XLRI Highest placement of Rs 50 lakh

JAMSHEDPUR: Pharma major Novartis offered the highest placement offer of Rs 50 lakh (USD 1,10,000) at the XLRI School of Business and Human Resources here for its prestigious HR leadership role at Basel, Switzerland.

The highest domestic package was Rs 26 lakh made by a consulting firm for its Mumbai desk whereas the average domestic package was at Rs 14.2 lakh, a 20 per cent increase over last year's figure.

The placement process attracted 75 companies giving a total of 205 offers to a batch of 120 Business Management and 60 Personnel Management and Industrial Relations (HR) students, XLRI Placement Committee Secretary Venkatesh K told reporters here last evening.

The campus recruitment programme 2010 saw 90 per cent of the batch accepting offers made by some of the most coveted organizations for their Indian and international locations followed by a strategically planned rolling process which enabled 100 per cent placements, Venkatesh K said.

XLRI, Venkatesh K said, maintained its position as a destination for premier finance roles as 28 per cent of the total offers came from the financial sector such as Goldman Sachs, Nomura Holdings, Edelweiss, Deutsche Bank, Citibank, HSBC, Standard Chartered, ICICI, Axis Bank and YES Bank.

He said marketing has drawn renewed interest from the students and was the most sought after profile with 30 per cent accepting offers.

A total of 25 per cent of the students received top notch consulting offers.

"XLRI has once again reinforced its long standing supremacy as the best B-school in Asia-Pacific for Human Resources Recruitments continues to be robust and growing with the participation of major firms in this sector." 

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IIFT 100% Placements

The Delhi-based Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) this year has seen its highest international salary package, till date, of $150,000 per annum, besides recording the highest average salary of Rs 11.54 lakh.

The final placements season that began in December last year saw 62 companies making offers to 164 students.

“This time around, the placements took place in three phases — international companies, lateral placements and final placements that ended in the first week of March. We spread this out as we did not want the recruiters to be under pressure,” said Munish Bhargava, corporate and placement advisor, IIFT.

About 30 per cent of the batch of 164 students, had pre-placement offers from firms like Cognizant Business Consulting, Mahindra & Mahindra, Johnson & Johnson Medical Systems, Tata Steel, Reckitt Benckiser, among others. Almost 10 per cent of the batch got placed overseas with Olam International offering the highest salary of $150,000. Other international recruiters included Triton Group, Sudima International, Punj Lloyd and Wilson International.

The highest domestic salary was Rs 13.08 lakh, while the average salary increased by 53 per cent over the last year at Rs 11.54 lakh per annum. Moreover, real estate companies along with energy and infrastructure firms were the new ones who visited the campus. The first timers included Amazan Agro, Daimler India, ONGC, Johnson & Johnson Medical Systems, Religare, Tata International, Jaypee Capital, ICICI Securities, Cairn Energy, SBI Capital, Gati, GE Corporation, MARG Group, Interglobe and Vistasoft.

“This year’s highest salary crossed the pre-slowdown levels. Last year, 30 per cent of the students opted for public sector jobs despite getting higher offers from private companies as the sentiment was to have a stable job,” added Bhargava. However, the institute still follows the one student-one offer policy as part of which a student can’t sit for another company’s exam if he already has one offer.

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IIM-B final placements

Providing a strong indication of a positive sentiment for the economy, the final placements season at the Indian Institute of Management Bangalore (IIM-B) was closed in just five days — half the time the institute took to place students last year. The highlight of the process was that 90 students accepted offers in slot zero (generally the first day) — a 41 per cent increase over the previous year.

Slot zero is the most coveted slot given to recruiters, usually investment banks and consultancies. Over 120 companies came to IIM-B this year for a batch of 270 students. Like last year, banking and financial services companies were at the top of students’ preference, with 27 per cent choosing to work with them. Consulting was the second, with 22 per cent, followed by IT & Systems (20 per cent), marketing (12 per cent) and general management (9 per cent). The rest was accounted for by private equity, healthcare, energy and public-sector units.

IT companies were the surprise package this year. About 50 students accepted offers from these companies. This is understood to be nearly double the number of acceptances last year. Wipro, HCL, MindTree, IBM and Cognizant were among the prominent recruiters. Wipro is said to have made eight offers, while HCL made 5 offers. “After a lull in the sector last year, IT companies have come back with renewed hiring requirements. They have offered good salaries to students in roles like consulting and sales and marketing,” said Sapna Agarwal, head of career development services at IIM-B.

Consulting firm Deloitte made 10 offers, the highest in IIM-B, followed by McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group, who made nine offers each. Some other slot-zero recruiters this year were Bain & Co, Booz & Co, AT Kearney, Diamond Consulting, Alvarez & Marsal, Nomura and Temasek Holdings. P&G, ITC and American Express made six offers each. There were 15 new companies, including healthcare group Narayana Hrudayalaya, which offered senior level positions to six students, on the campus this year. The institute refused to comment on salaries, but it is learnt that there was an increase of 10-20 per cent in average salaries across sectors. Seventy-two students had received pre-placement offers from the companies they interned with.

Lateral placements, for which only students with over 22 months of work experience are eligible, saw a total of 66 offers, compared to 50 offers last year. There were 30 companies in the lateral placements this year.

Praveen, one of the members of the student placement committee, said nearly 10 companies that had not hired last year returned to the campus. The institute had a provision in place this year to refund fees of students who took up jobs with non-government organisations for three years, but officials said they were yet to get a confirmation on this from one or two students who were interested.

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Top consulting firms at IIM Calcutta Placements

Kolkata: Several top consulting firms, including Oliver Wyman Group, McKinsey and Co., Boston Consulting Group, Bain and Co. and Opera Solutions have confirmed their participation in the final placements round at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C) starting on Saturday.

US-based Oliver Wyman would be visiting the campus for the first time, said Samyukktha Thirumeni, external relations secretary at the institute.

The Singapore government’s investment arm Temasek Holdings Pte Ltd would be returning to the campus after a year, Thirumeni added. Swiss bank UBS AG has also confirmed participation in slot zero—or the first round of recruitment in which companies hunt for the best talent.

Finance companies such as Bank of America-Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital have already offered jobs to students who interned with them during the summer of last year, according to Thirumeni.

These are called pre-placement offers, or PPOs. Last year, IIM-C students received 50 “slot zero PPOs” and 39 job offers in slot zero. With so many finance and consulting firms confirming their participation in slot zero, IIM-C students are expecting much better offers this year, Thirumeni added.

Yet, the institute has like last year decided to keep the placements open-ended, according to Prafulla Agnihotri, professor and chairman of placements at IIM-C.

“We would be placing the biggest batch in IIM-C’s history this year,” he said.

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XIMB: 100% placements

Bhubaneswar: The Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), one of the premier B-schools of the country, has announced that all its Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) and Post Graduate Diploma in Management(Rural Management ) have got placements in Xuberance 2010, the Institution’s annual campus recruitment process. 

“The PGDM batch of 2010 saw an average salary of Rs10.52 lakh per annum, a 45% increase compared to last year," said XIMB director Fr. PT Joseph. With over 27% of the batch receiving pre-placement calls from their summer internship organizations, the momentum of placements continued with over 58 companies participating in the recruitment process. Of these 16% were first time recruiters, he added. 

According to XIMB placement coordinator Kalpesh Kela, Xuberance 10 saw regular recruiters like Cognizant, OLAM International, HCCBPL, Deloitte, UB Group, Vodafone, Infosys, HP, Tata Corp HR, TCS, HSBC, Wipro, Axis Bank, Dr Reddy’s, Essar Group, Societe Generale, ICRA, Tata Steel, Fidelity, Mahindra, Idea, SBI, Tata Tele Services strengthen their relationship with XIMB. New bonds were formed with Nokia, Dell, RBS, Religare, Daimler, Vista Soft, AATCO and many others. The profiles offered varied in their diversity, encompassing corporate finance, equity research, investment banking, marketing, sales and distribution, supply chain management, business consulting, IT consulting, industrial relations and corporate HR. 

The Rural Management Programme of XIMB also witnessed 100% placements this year with all 53 students joining their fields of core competence. The placement week saw the participation of over 20 companies. Some of the star recruiters of this year were ITC, Amul, Mother Dairy, Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR), IMRB International, Monsanto India Limited, Manipal Education & Medical group, NASSCOM Foundation, IDBI Bank Ltd etc. 

The highest package of the batch was pegged at Rs 9.5 lakh per annum while the average salary stood at Rs 5.3 lakh per annum . The average salary increased by 18.83% compared to last year’s figures. 

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XIM, Bhubaneswar placements scale new heights

Following the downswing in the world economic environment in 2008, the academic year 2009-10 brought with it a fresh lease of vibrancy which Xuberance 2010, the Annual Campus Recruitment Process of Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), captured to its utmost extent. Xuberance 2010 was successful in drafting yet another glorious chapter in the placement record book of XIMB with 100% placements for the Post Graduate Diploma in Management (PGDM) course reinforcing the strong academic culture of the institute. Xuberance 2010 witnessed the participation of regular recruiters aptly complemented by a plethora of new entrants.

The Rural Management Programme of XIMB was started with the objective of catering to the increasing demand for trained professionals in organizations working in the rural space. With the urban markets becoming increasingly saturated, ‘Go Rural’ has become the buzz word today. The 10 year old Rural Management Programme at XIMB has churned out many professionals who now hold important positions in the corporate space as well as influence the policy making mechanism of the country.

In keeping with tradition, the RM programme also witnessed 100% placements this year with all 53 students joining their fields of core competence. The placement week saw the participation of over 20 companies. Recruiters were broadly classified under four sectors- Banking & Microfinance, Agriculture & Allied Business, Research & Consultancy and Development. 

 

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Pre-placement offers at IIMs

The new year is bringing along with it a lot of hope for the IIM students. With pre-placement offers (PPOs) pouring in, students are singing away the recessionary blues. Most of the IIMs are hoping to exceed the 2008-2009 numbers, which saw students bagging about 250 PPOs as compared to over 500 offers made the year before.

“The placement process for the batch of 2010 is on in full swing at IIM-C and as of last week, more than 100 offers (both PPOs and laterals combined) have been received by students from various firms,” said Hariharan Sriram,external relations secretary of IIM-C. Last year the institute bagged about 56 PPOs as against 90 in 2008.

“We've also witnessed an increase in the packages offered to the students, with a few offers above 20 lakh per annum being made. This is a significant improvement compared to last year. But the mood on campus is one of guarded optimism, as the numbers are still not as good as the pre-recession 2007-08 levels,” Sriram said.

The recruiters who have made offers this year include Cognizant Business Consulting, Delloite, Hinduja Group, Aditya Birla Group, Accenture Business Consulting, Mahindra & Mahindra, Virtusa, Essar and Bristlecone.

The scene is not much different at IIM-L. “The PPOs have started coming in from July last year. Together with the laterals, PPOs this year has crossed 100 offers and more are expected to come in until the final placement process begins,” Sharat Chander, member of IIM-L placement cell, said. The total number of firms participating in the placements this year has seen a 100 per cent increase at IIM-L.

Although IIM-Ahmedabad did not disclose details about salary, it said the number of PPOs range between 40 and 50 this year. According to Himanshu Nema, student placement co-ordinator of IIM-A, companies such as Cognizant and Aditya Birla Group have offered jobs. “We expect a larger number of firms to participate in the finals this year,” he added.

At IIM-K, too, the number of PPOs offered this year has seen a significant rise. “PPOs and pre-placement interviews (PPIs) combined, this year we have received about 35 offers as against 20-25 offers received last year,” said Rohan Jaikishen of the student placement committee at IIM-K.

IIM-B, refused to divulge any details about placements. Last year IIM-B got about 40 offers as against 105-110 offers in 2007-08. Lateral placements at the institute began in the third week of December last year and will continue till February 15. Final placements will begin in the first week of March.

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IRMA placements a big hit, salaries up 20%

AHMEDABAD: Dollar salaries don’t ring too many bells here. An overseas posting could mean the challenge of starting a one-teacher school in a remote Bhutanese village; and Day Zero is the day when you manage to recoup the first Rs 100 you shelled out by way of a micro finance loan to a poor farmer in Warangal.

Yet this is a campus placement, and this too is a B-school. The placement season here coincides with a larger-than-life version of what’s currently taking place in the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, barely 100 km away.

Welcome to the world of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), a B-school that’s high in demand as state administrations, micro-finance institutions and educational institutions realise that the developmental process in India doesn’t lack money, it’s just awfully short of capable hands that can manage it.

A week ago, on the very first day of its campus placement season IRMA managed to place all its students of the 2010 batch. Sure, no bulge-bracket figures here, the average salary stood at Rs 6 lakh per annum, 20% higher than last year’s.

But each of the 65 students received more than two job offers. And among the top recruiters were the tribal welfare divisions of the state governments and organisations involved in livelihood projects with names like Hole-In-The-Wall and Basix.

IRMA managed this despite the absence of banks, both public and private sector, that usually recruit around 50% of the students every year. Placement coordinator professor Saswata Narayan Biswas says over 45 organisations approached IRMA this year, of which 19 were invited to the campus.

So what explains this rush at a campus devoted to management at the grassroot level?

Magsaysay winner and IRMA board member Deep Joshi says that the institute scores because the Indian education system fails to encourage students to work in rural areas. “Funding is no more a problem in the past 10 years or so with the Centre promoting schemes like NREG. However, the development sector lacks talented and knowledgeable people who can work in rural India and guide people to utilise their funds in an appropriate manner,” he says.

At Placements 2010, Hyderabad-based livelihood organisation Basix picked up the highest number — 12 students. “Former IRMA candidates have not only grown with Basix but have also started their own initiatives. We will deploy the students in all the functional areas as management trainees for a couple of years. They will work in consulting, agriculture, energy, climate change, IT and HR,” says Rama Kadamb, who heads leadership development at Basix, which operates in 12 states.

Hole-in-the-Wall, an organisation working on education through learning stations, recruited two students to be placed in Bhutan for project work.

The Andhra Pradesh government wants to engage the IRMA students it picked up in its tribal welfare department while the Gujarat government has recruited for its Development Support Agency and Gujarat State Disaster Management Authority. Madhya Pradesh roped in an IRMA student for a World Bank project.

Out of 65, over 25 students were placed with the state governments while organisations engaged in microfinance and livelihood projects recruited 30, says Mr Biswas. Among others, headhunters from traditional placement participants Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (Amul) and National Dairy Development Board recruited nine students while ITC picked up three for its e-Chaupal.

IRMA, set up in 1979 by India’s milkman Verghese Kurien, has enlisted over 650 organisations, which can participate in the placement process. “Placements for 2010 has once again proved the faith of organisations engaged with microfinance and livelihood activities in IRMA by recruiting students in a big way,” says IRMA director Vivek Bhandari. 

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UBS placements dip by 50%, best salary up

CHANDIGARH: With companies shying away from inducting fresh blood, the region’s premier business school has also felt the pinch of a sluggish recruiting season. Though there has been no drop in the number of companies visiting University Business School, less than 50% final-year students have been extended placement offers so far.

This is in sharp contrast to the track record of Panjab University’s popular department. Not too long ago - in 2007 and 2008 - each student had graduated from the department with a job in his hand.

Information collected from UBS placement office states out of a total of 131 final-year students of 2008-09 batch, 61 have been placed with an average package of Rs 5.96 lakh. However, with a few weeks still left for the process to end, the business school expects the number to cross 80.

‘‘The final word for 16 to 18 offers is still pending. The exact situation will emerge with declaration of results,’’ said coordinator of placements Natashaa Boparai. While 131 students had passed out from UBS in 2007-08, the previous batch - 2006-2007 - saw 125 students get placed from campus.

Over past three years, close to 30 companies have visited the campus each year. In fact, while the last two years saw banking and IT firms make up the major chunk of recruiters, this time saw entertainment and finance sectors too pick up some talent from the department.

Interestingly, in the three-year comparison, the highest package of Rs 13 lakh per annum came this year. Talking to TOI, placement coordinator SK Chadha said, ‘‘Economic slowdown is responsible for the present scenario.’’ He added with elections on, chances of more recruiters visiting campus were bleak. ‘‘Most of the placements this year been effected through alumni, who’re like the department’s brand ambassadors.’’

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XIMB 100% placement for postgraduates

KOLKATA: Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) has wrapped up Xuberance 2009, its annual campus recruitment programme with 100% placements for its post-graduate diploma in management (PGDM) students. The highest annual salary of Rs 16 lakh is 3% lower than last year’s top salary of Rs 16.5 lakh per annum.

The average salary, however, saw a steeper decline, falling over 23% to Rs 7.3 lakh per annum from Rs 9.56 lakh per annum last year. Also, there were no foreign placements this time for the 118-strong batch, as compared to four international offers last year. The median salary was Rs 7.5 lakh per annum.

Around 54 companies participated on-campus in the placement process, making 118 offers. There were 33 pre-placement offers and interviews.

Among the prominent recruiters this year were Godrej, Tata Group HR, Coca Cola, Cognizant Technologies, Deloitte Consulting, Ernst and Young, Hewlett Packard, TCS, Societe Generale, Axis Bank, SBI, SBI Caps, Tata Steel, IMRB, Cavin Kare, Bank of Baroda, IDBI Bank, Sebi, Indian Oil Corporation, Genpact, Vodafone, Idea, Tata Teleservices, ICI Paints, HSBC Global and Kalinga Soft.

Of the total offers, 32% were made by the finance sector while 23% of the students opted for marketing. Some 18% opted for systems, 8% for HR and another 7% for consulting and general management areas respectively while 5% students took up offers in the operations area.

FIGURES TALK

16 lakh highest annual salary offered this season.
7.3 lakh per annum is the average salary offered.
118 total number of students in the PGDM course.
54 companies participated in Xuberance ’09.

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IIFT students land dream jobs

KOLKATA: Be it the highest salary offer or the number of top corporate houses making a beeline for its students, the Kolkata campus of the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) has managed to throw in many surprises this placement season, despite the ongoing economic slump. The IIFT authorities said they were apprehensive about the way placements would go this year, but finally managed to place the entire batch.

IIFT, established by the Ministry of Commerce, Government of India, in 1963, is a leading research and training institute in international business subjects. In an era of increasing globalization, IIFT programmes are unique because of their emphasis on international dimensions of economy and business. Continuous research has been the backbone for updating the IIFT curriculum to reflect fast-changing global business dynamics.

There was a sizeable increase in the number of companies that visited the Salt Lake campus for the first time. Of the 72 companies that visited the campus, 38 were newcomers. However, only 62 could recruit from the campus as students benefited from a wide choice and were choosy in their acceptance of offers. "This was especially encouraging, as many of these companies are multinationals and have put recruitments unless absolutely strategic on hold for the moment," said a spokesperson. "Also the diversity of recruiters across the sectors offering a plethora of profiles was more than what we expected this year," he added.

Industry leaders like Arthur D'Little, ITC, Colgate Palmolive, Nomura Holdings, Coca Cola, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Glenmark, Titan, Bajaj Auto, Cargill, Tata Motors, Axis Bank, ICRA, Unicon Securities, Eli Lilly, Vodafone, Virgin mobile, Philips Godfrey, Essar Group, Tata Steel, Reckitt Benckiser, ICI Paints and Avalon Consulting visited the campus to recruit students for positions in marketing, corporate finance, treasury, international business, general management, consulting and so on.

Some of the new recruiters, such as Usha International, AP Moller Maersk, Fino Analytics, Darashaw, Mitsui & Co, Merck, CARE Ratings, Siemens and Bertling Global offered diverse profiles. Big players in IT, like Wipro, Cognizant Business Consulting, HCL, TCS and Infosys were present, too.

A premier investment bank offered the highest salary Rs 19 lakh this year. The average salary was close to Rs 10 lakh. Interestingly about 30% students could wrest jobs in the most coveted international business and trading profiles. There was a major presence of public sector undertakings like BHEL, STC, Bank of Baroda, SAIL, IDBI Bank, NMDC and MMTC, among others.

Munish Bhargava, the corporate and placements advisor at IIFT said, "The recruiters included companies from sectors like trading, logistics, pharma, microfinance, and PSUs. Students were willing to compromise on their pay structures for good roles of their choice. Hence, many of them chose to go into PSUs even if they had managed berths in multinationals."

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Small firms afford IIM managers

Global recession might have brought a number of top level corporate to their knees but it seems to be a "good opportunity" for numerous small and medium companies, which can now afford to hire hot-shot executives from top business schools at much "affordable" prices.

The pass-outs of the country's premier business schools like IIMs can now be hired at much lower packages than they used to get when the world economies were booming.

Analysts say, the placement scene at most of the IIMs this year is not much encouraging as compared to previous years. This year, number of big companies as well as number of international companies coming for campus placements has decreased.

"There is more than 30 per cent dip in the average salary offered to fresh IIM graduates. In IIM-A, this year's average domestic salary offer has come down to Rs 12.17 lakh from previous year's Rs 18.75 lakh," IIM-A Placement Cell Chairman, Dr Saral Mukherjee said.

He said the number of offers per students has also gone down as the recruitment process in most of the companies has come to an halt in view of economic slow down.

Similarly, the domestic average salary offered this year at IIM Calcutta has been Rs 12.70 lakhs with the highest offer at Rs 60 lakhs per annum. While the average figure for last year was Rs 16.40 lakhs.

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Poor placements take sheen away from ISB graduation day

Hyderabad, April 5 The Board of Director of Indian School of Business (ISB) will take special measures to ensure placements to all the students who graduated this year, according to Mr Rajat Gupta, Chairman, Board of ISB.

Speaking at the eighth graduation ceremony of the Hyderabad-based business school here on Saturday, Mr Gupta asked the board members to ensure “a better placement experience for ISB this year”.

Over 100 students of 437 students of the Class of 2009 did not find placements due to recession. The high-profile business school was ranked 15 among the top 100 global business schools by the Financial Times.

Mr Ajit Rangnekar, Dean of ISB, said the year was a challenging time for placements and the prospects of experienced professionals were worst hit.

“Today, you may hate the experience. ISB had faced (the) same trouble during the first batch of ISB eight years ago. But those students are now industry leaders,” he said.

ISB would also be setting up a taskforce to identify right opportunities for the students.

EXPANSION

The school plans to introduce four specialist schools at its second campus at Mohali, which is getting ready. The Max India Institute of Healthcare Management, BML Munjal Institute of Manufacturing and Operational Excellence, Bharti Institute of Public Policy and Punj Lloyd Institute of Physical Infrastructure Management would be coming up at Mohali.

“The main campus here will also have a doctoral programme and an executive post graduate programme from 2010-11,” he added.

Mr Arun Sarin, former chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, who participated as chief guest, said the emerging economies, led by China and India, would a play major role in the years to come. “You will see more meetings of G-20 nations rather than those of G-7,” he said.

In the time of economic slowdown, innovation and new business models would keep emerging, he said, adding that students should think of entrepreneurship.

GLOOMY MOOD

The general mood at ISB, which had seen jubilant graduation days till now, was dull as one-fourth of the students were not successful in campus placements.

“It seems that our timing was wrong. The students (and their parents) who had taken educational loans and quit good jobs to pursue studies are the main victims,” a student who did not like to be identified told Business Line.

ISB assured them to provide placement assistance by including them in the campus placement programme for next two years, he added.

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100% placements at IIM-Indore

The Indian Institute of Management, Indore, has claimed to achieve 100 per cent placement for its 10th graduating batch (2009).

"Despite the global downturn, placements at IIM Indore have showcased the wide acceptability of its students by the corporate world. Foreign offers have seen a substantial jump with several organisations recruiting exclusively from the institute," Chairman of the Placements department, Professor Prashant Salwan said in a release today.

Regular recruiters such as Deutsche Bank, HSBC Global Research, Standard Chartered Bank, Axis Bank, Yes Bank, FuturesFirst, Johnson and Johnson, ITC, Deloitte Innovation, Knightfrank, Larsen and Toubro, Jindal Steel and Power Corporation, Infosys and CTS among others continued their relationship with the institute this year also, the institute said.

Besides, new recruiters like UTI Mutual Fund, Mahindra and Mahindra, Virgin Mobile, Unicorn Securities, Eli Lilly and Infrasoft Technologies also took part in the placements, it said.

Public Sector Undertakings like Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, SAIL, SEBI, IOCL and BPCL also recruited students for senior management roles, the release said.

Financial services continued to dominate in terms of the number of offers as nearly 50 per cent of the offers came from this sector, it said.

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ISB placement season extended

For the first time since its inception, the Indian School of Business (ISB) has extended its placement season indefinitely. Only 250 of the 440 students (around 57 per cent) in the class of 2009 have secured jobs in the placement drive that began in early January.

Placements should have been completed by the end of March, and the campus would have been readying for graduation day in the first week of April. However, the slowing economy appears to have taken a toll on this prestigious B-school, which ranked 15 in the 2009 global MBA rankings released by the Financial Times. Over the years, the placement trends were analysed and results announced by graduation day, scheduled for April 4. This year, that is unlikely to happen. There are already hints of a fall in the annual average salary offers from Rs 18-20 lakh to Rs 13-15 lakh.

In 2007, 581 offers were made to 416 students. In 2008, 657 offers were made to 421 students.

The IT-ITeS, finance and real estate sectors combined made 280 job offers in 2008. This year, all these sectors have been hit by the slowdown. The school had, in fact, sensed this and started inviting new companies for campus recruitment around November this year.

Many students graduating this April will still have access to ISB’s resources and services over the next few months to find a job. The school will be in regular touch with students to help them find a suitable job that fits students’ profiles.

The school, however, has not fixed any timeframe for students to find jobs. “We will continue to explore avenues till all students find the right job in accordance with their qualifications and work experience,” said an ISB spokesperson.

The premier B-school had earlier announced that it would increase enrolments by 560 to 600 for the class of 2010. It did not, however, explain how it would raise the number of job offers if the job market did not pick up.

ISB has six months to plan for the placement of the new batch after collecting the profiles of the students, their preferences for a sector or function, location choices and so on.

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