At IITs, placement trump slowdown blues
Going by campus placement offers at India's premier technological institutes it is apparent that corporate biggies have shrugged off the sense of gloom that slowing economic growth and tumbling stock markets have created. The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) recorded a 10-20% jump in salaries at the final placement offers for students at Madras, Kharagpur, Bombay, Delhi, Guwahati and Roorkee. The top offer thus far is an annual package of Rs 75 lakh ($150,000) from social networking platform Facebook.
A close second is US-based mobile gaming start-up Pocket Gems' Rs 69.8 lakh ($135,000), followed by global miner Rio Tinto's Rs 36 lakh and Japanese consumer electronic major Sony Corp's Rs 30 lakh. Facebook has also made two offers of Rs 67.2 lakh ($130,000) and six offers of Rs 64.7 lakh ($125,000) across the IITs. So far, 19 companies have completed the placement process, making 66 offers. Amazon, Schlumberger, IBM and ITC have been among the regulars on campus while new names on the block include Flipkart and EXL Service. The line-up of companies wanting to tap Indian talent also includes investment banking and securities firm Goldman Sachs, management consulting firms McKinsey and The Boston Consulting Group, Internet company Google, Shell Technologies, Swiss offshore drilling company Transocean, Deutsche Bank and Indian heavyweights HUL and ITC.
Source: The Economic Times