Retail biggies like Reliance Retail, Bharti-Wal Mart, Essar, RPG and London-based Tesco are drawing up plans to tap the top business school campuses, which is likely to make things tough for regular big-time hiring companies belonging to finance, IT and consultancy and is certain to push up hiring costs.

"Almost all major retailers, including Reliance Retail and Bharti Wal-Mart, have evinced interest in recruiting from the campus when the placement process starts in March," IIM Indore student placement secretary Shreyan M L told PTI.

The increased demand is going to give a big push to the average salary of the graduates.

As Shreyan puts it, "These companies have expressed their interest in recruiting large number of graduates and this is going to push the salary offered by as much as 40-50 per cent, since finance and IT sectors would also be vying for the same graduates."

And not only are Indian retail companies coming to the campuses, foreign retailers like Tesco are equally bullish on the Indian brains to manage their operations.

The London-based retail giant, which is considering to enter the Indian market, has already set eyes on the B-school campuses and has confirmed its participation in the placement process at IIM Calcutta, IIM Bangalore and ISB Hyderabad.

The company has also made a presentation at the top-notch Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and is believed to be gearing up to participate in the recruitment process there as well.

Companies from different sectors, including those from pharma, retail and real estate are also approaching the IIMs and ISB, Hyderabad for participating in the final placement process, which would start in March.

"Though finance and IT are performing well on the Dalal Street, still they will have to face competition from the newcomers," IIM Ahmedabad placement committee member Pravin G said.

In fact, no company wants to miss the bus as previous trends show. Many companies had to go empty-handed from the IIM campuses in 2006.

Last year, as many as 50 companies had to return empty-handed from IIM, Kozhikode, while the comparative numbers for IIM, Calcutta, and IIM, Indore, the youngest of the breed, were 25 and 35 respectively.

It is not that only companies are interested in hiring talent, but students too are showing a change in taste and are evincing interest in sectors that nobody was ready to choose a few years ago.

"Students are showing interest in the real estate sector as well and consequently many companies from the country and abroad are approaching us," Shreyan said, adding that one Australian real-estate finance company Macquire Bank has even finalised its plans in this regard.

Nearly 80-85 companies have already approached the campus, he added. Average salary for an IIM graduate varied between Rs 6 lakh to Rs 9 lakh per annum last year for the domestic offers, while for international offers the package varied between $60,000 to $225,000.

IIM-A student offered $233,000 salary