The Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, seems to be making quite a mark this placement season. US technology firm Intel was the top recruiter in the 2016-17 season and hired 29 students from the institute. Most of them were reportedly from the computer science department.
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Intel was closely followed by Citicorp, which hired 23 students, Cognizant Technology Solutions, 19, and Eaton, which also hired 19 students. One of the companies has offered an annual package of Rs 1.15 crore, the highest, Manu Santhanam, advisor, Training and Placement, IIT-Madras, told BusinessLine. However, he refused to reveal the name of the company.
While industry giants took on board quite a number of students, the charm of start-ups seems to have faded among the students as well as the institute. About 139 start-ups are said to have come for placements last year, but only 53 showed up this placement session. This could also be because the institute explained that they have been picky about the companies that they want to invite for placements.
"After several start-ups failed to keep their promises following the offers, students and placement office were a lot more cautious in inviting start-ups this year. This may be one of the reasons for the decline in the number of start-ups coming for campus placement. Those students who could not get into start-ups were given an opportunity this year during placement," Santhanam explained to the website.
Last year, the campus saw numerous start-ups such as My Ally, Belcan, Swiggy, Urban Ladder and Noodle Analytics, vying for the students' attention, but this year it was mostly IT giants that recruited students. In fact, Public Sector Undertakings (PSU) also made quite a mark as ISRO, ONGC, HPCL and Coal India are said to have recruited about 39 students this year.
