IIT Placement Season sees Make in India effect; Core Companies in Demand

New Delhi: The Make in India campaign initiated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi seems to have made a major impact on the student psyche at the leading Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). This placement season has seen more and more IIT students opting to join core companies than going for fatter pay packages elsewhere.

At IIT Delhi, 510 students out of a batch of 850, has opted for core companies. Almost 60% students at the campus are joining core companies this year. Last year, just 350 students had joined the core sectors. What’s more amazing is the fact that four of the eight IITians in Delhi who received crore-plus salary offers from international companies chose to join the core sector in India instead. IIT Delhi also talked to core companies to sponsor students for higher studies and received positive response too.

IIT Bombay and IIT Roorkee consciously promoted the ‘Make in India’ campaign by allotting early slots to core companies this year – instead of traditional way of slot allotment which is based on the size of pay packages.

 IIT-B received 1,000 job offers in total in which 461 offers were from core sectors. Last year, the institute had received just 300 job offers from core companies. First timers at the campus included Sony Energy Devices Corporation, Triveni Turbines, and KLA Tencor. Tata Steel and Airbus were some of the companies that made 20 offers on Day 1 and received a great response from students.

 IIT Roorkee received 225 core job offers this year in Phase I of the placement season – up from 150 job offers received till December last year. It also saw more core companies participating in IIT placements this year – many of them being new entrants on the block.

IIT Kharagpur received 400 offers from 65 core companies in the first phase – up from 300 offers from 21 companies it received last year. First timers at IIT KGP included the likes of Bajaj Auto, Mercedes Benz Research and Development, Rolls Royce India, Wrig Nanosystems, and Toyo Engineering Corporation. Five students from the Department of Aerospace Engineering have joined core functions of their specialization in Honeywell, Rolls-Royce and Airbus.

IIT Kanpur also saw many core companies participating in the placement season for the first time, including App-Dynamics, Bajaj Auto, Escorts Group, General Motors, Godrej and Mercedes-Benz. The institute made conscious effort to sensitize its students to accept placement offers from core companies. It received highest number of job offers from core companies yet – as many as 570 placement offers from 210 companies.

The general trend was that Consulting, Finance, Ecommerce and Technology companies were offered Day 1 slots and offered salaries more than Rs 20 lakh per annum. This year, trends are buckling. Professor Sudhir Kumar Barai, Head of Career Development Centre (CDC) at IIT Kharagpur said, “The remuneration in the core sectors may seem less initially but in the long run, differences even out.”

Core companies are offering salary in the range of Rs 7 to 15 lakh per annum this year and it is expected that by the end of placement season, number of core companies visiting IIT campuses will increase by at least 40%.