Wary of the times ahead in the job market, business schools are working on a risk-minimisation strategy and looking at doubling the pool of companies on the campus for the summer placements scheduled in November this year. Accordingly, they have invited more companies to participate in the summer placements this academic year.

"We are more worried about the summer placements, which begin in November, as students in their first year would be going for it. The final placements are way ahead and also the second-year students already have pre-placement offers in hand," said a placement chairperson from one of the Indian Institutes of Management.

Summer placements take place for the first-year students in November. The students get placed with respective companies for a two-month internship programme during summers, usually in May and June. These internships later get converted into job offers called pre-placement offers.

B-schools say a few companies they are depending on have either said they may not turn up for placements or have expressed a lower level of commitment. So, the institutes are approaching 'fresh' recruiters for summer placements this year. IIM Bangalore, for instance, has already approached around 100 companies to participate in placements this year.

The institute is actively pursuing talks with another 200 companies to have nearly 300 companies on the campus this year for the strength of its 300-plus students. "We are just being cautious in the way the job market is behaving. We prefer approaching more number of companies this year as we do expect that a few companies might falter during placements," said a professor of one of the IIMs. The institutes have intensified the process as the number of students on the campuses has gone up as compared to that in the last year.

IIM Kozhikode, which had a batch of 180 students last year, has around 265 students to place this year. Currently, the institute is in touch with over 200 companies for summer placements this year. Many of these companies have conducted corporate presentations. Prominent among these are JPMorgan, Hewitt Associates, HUL, Citibank, HSBC and others. Last year, the institute had around 75 companies on the campus to recruit students for the internship.

At IIM Indore, the institute has already placed around 65 per cent of its students and has seen an increase of around 10 per cent in the number of companies approaching it to participate in summer placements this year.

The institute is looking at the manufacturing, FMCG and IT sectors aggressively this year. It had increased its batch size from 180 to 240 students this year.

At Mumbai-based KJ Somaiya Institute of Management Studies, the institute is targeting a 50 per cent increase in the number of companies on its campus this year. "As compared to the last year, where around 120 companies visited the campus, we are targeting over 180 firms to ensure that all students get placed for summer internships. Although we have hardly got any negative vibes during these turbulent times, some of the companies do have hinted that compensations or stipends may not rise this year amidst the economic slowdown," said N D Sharma, the placement coordinator at the institute.

As expected, finance as a sector has been shying away from B-school campuses, added Sharma. The institute expects more IT and ITeS firms as well as consulting firms to pick up the 300-odd students from summer placements.