Deepak Gidwani. LUCKNOW
The pall of gloom over the Indian economy finally appears to be fading away, if summer placements at IIM-Lucknow (IIM-L) are anything to go by.
The global recession notwithstanding, IIM-L, which boasts of the largest batch across premier B-schools, has achieved 100% placements of choice this year. Several students have bagged international offers with top-notch firms such as Barclays Capital, Frost & Sullivan and Ernst & Young.
"Things are definitely looking up," IIM-L director Devi Singh said. "The trend in the markets is positive and we can look forward with hope for students expecting final placements in 2010," he said.
Singh admitted salaries had seen a downturn but reasoned the decrease for the 2008-10 batch was proportionate to other IIMs. "This is a general phenomenon… but I am optimistic… these are not our final placements anyway."
Singh's confidence is backed by the fact that as many as 105 companies made a total of 284 offers to the 235 students in the final placement process early this year. Of the 267-strong graduating batch, 25 students accepted pre-placement offers (PPOs), while seven chose to start up on their own.
"This is the largest placement process this year across premier B-schools in terms of number of candidates successfully placed," IIM-L placement cell chairman RL Raina said.
A new aspect during this year's placements was the presence of as many as 14 PSUs, including Bank of Baroda, Union Bank of India, ONGC, Sidbi, Bhel, NTPC, Sail, Gail and Coal India Ltd. "While private sector companies were cautious, PSUs and government banks provided the much-needed momentum," a senior faculty member said.
A sizeable number of students opted for PSUs for the first time, with 65 offers - the most across all IIMs - accepted.
Media relations committee spokesman Nagendra S said, "Last year, the situation was grim. Now, it looks as if things will improve in the next four months when final placements would be due," he said.
McKinsey & Co, The Boston Consulting Group, Proctor & Gamble, Hindustan Unilever Limited, TAS, HSBC, Axis Bank, ICICI Group, Deutsche Bank, American Express, Frost & Sullivan, Asian Paints, Alshaya, Cadbury, Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline and Reckitt Benckiser were among this year's recruiters.
International consulting and finance firms such as McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group and JP Morgan, besides marketing majors like Unilever, Procter & Gamble and Diageo have already confirmed PPOs for IIML students.
No mean achievement, indeed.