For over a million engineering students who are stepping into placement season this month, Nasscom President Som Mittal's confirmation that IT hiring will indeed decline 22% to 1.8 lakh this year does just that. "Ten years ago, we could hire half the graduating engineering students, but now, there is global uncertainty, automation, non-linear growth," Mittal told ET even as a new engineering placement season gets underway in a rather bleak economic backdrop.

Hundreds of non-IIT and second-tier colleges are now getting into a placement overdrive. They are roping in newer industries, inviting more companies, settling for salaries that are much lower than the minimum benchmarks, and encouraging more students to entrepreneurship.

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