While the IITs themselves are not very happy with the placements as yet, their management departments are reaping the benefits of an improving economy.
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 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 lakhs (Rs 1.82 million), while the average was Rs 11.86 lakhs (Rs 1.18 million).
Last year, while average salary was Rs 9,40,000, highest salary offered was Rs 16 lakhs (Rs 1.6 million).
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, 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 such as State Bank of India, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited, 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 (Rs 1.21 million). 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 (Rs 1.2 million), while the average salary has seen an increase this year to touch Rs 900,000, up from Rs 800,000 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 (Rs 1.16 million) offered by Deloitte, while the average stood at Rs 8,50,000.
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 at IIT Kharagpur and Shailesh J Mehta School of Management 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.
