IIT Bombay banking on PSUs for bailout

IIT Mumbai banks on PSUs for Jobs this year.
9 Feb 2009, 1450 hrs IST, Abhijit Deb, ET Bureau

MUMBAI: In order to cushion the blow that the economic slowdown has on final campus placements this year, placement co-coordinators at IIT Bombay
are banking on navratna companies or public sector units to bail them out.

Seeing the poor response by traditional recruiters in the first month of placement, public sector units such as IOC, ONGC, GAIL, BPCL, HPCL, BHEL, MTNL, NTPC and SAIL are being contacted by the student placement cell of IIT Bombay, inviting them to visit their campus for recruitments.

Placements on the IIT campuses across the country, which began in January, have suffered due to the economic slowdown, with even IIT Bombay, a much sought-after institute among most companies, seeing lukewarm response from the private corporate world so far. The trend is evident with placement dates being extended till April. Earlier, the placement process at the IIT Bombay used to get over within two to three days.

A student placement coordinator from IIT Bombay told ET ," We are hoping on PSUs as many of them haven't yet visited the campus. We are hoping that remaining students will be absorbed by these public sector companies." Student placement coordinators are busy making presentations to top public sector units.

Already 20 days into their placement period, IIT Bombay has received a weak response from the corporate world. This year out of the 72 students who are up for final placement at the campus, only 40 students have managed to get placements so far. Till now the average salary offered was in the range of Rs 10 to 12 lakhs per annum.

The institute, which boasts of a strong alumni such as Infosys' so-founder Nandan Nilekani, also taps into past students to help students find jobs.