B-schools make hay while the sun shines

Growing job opportunities ensure good placements for even second- and third-rung business schools.

For Panvel-based Pillai's Institute of Management Studies and Research (PIMSR), 2011 has seen remarkable placements.

Domestic salary in the institute has gone up from Rs 6.59 lakh in 2010 to 10 lakh this year -- an increase of 49 per cent.
And average salary in the institute is up from Rs 2.5 lakh in 2010 to Rs 3.5 lakh this year.

It's not just the premier B-schools that are witnessing buoyancy in placements. Even mid-rung and three-tier B-schools in the country are having a field day, nearing a 100 per cent placement target.

For instance, Ahmedabad University's (AU) Amrut Mody School of Management (AMSM) has recorded the highest salary at Rs 8 lakh offered by Futures First.

"We started the process of inviting companies in mid-October and 60-65 companies have so far made it to the placements this year. Last year we had approached around 100 companies out of which 92 had turned up," says Rima Gupta, assistant placement officer at AMSM.

TCS, Torrent pharmaceutical, Prakash Chemicals, Futures First, Doshion, Reliance, L&T Finance, and ICICI were some of the top companies that have been part of the recruitment process. Out of 120 students there were 109 who went in for the placements process. Around 50-55 offers have already been given to students while the process will go on till May.

At Nirma University, Ahmedabad, out of a batch of 170 students, 160 students have opted for the placement process. Nirma had invited more than 500 companies for placement and there were around 40 companies that participated.

According to Neeraj Amarnani, placement chairperson at the Institute of Management, Nirma University, top recruiters from regular sectors like IT, banking, consumer durables, manufacturing and infrastructure participated in the placement process. The institute did not divulge salary package details.

At the Institute of Rural Management, Anand (IRMA), annual average salary offered to the participants is around Rs 8.03 lakhs, which is a 34 per cent increase from last year's average. "Organisations like Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation, (GCMMF), the newly set up NDDB dairy Services (NDS), ITT Corporation, ITC, and ICICI, have been some of the top recruiters while the highest salary offered till now has been Rs 10.47 lakhs per annum by consulting firm Ernst & Young. The highest compensation package has also increased to 10.79 per cent from last year's Rs 9.45 lakhs," said placement coordinator, Professor Preeti Priya.

Domains on offer included finance, research and advisory, agri-business, ICT, renewable energy, livelihood promotion, watershed development, education and health.

This year, IRMA has also introduced a policy for deferred placements, so as to provide placement services in the coming years to the participants who choose to opt out of this year's placements.

Among the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM), IIM Ahmedabad's (IIM-A) cluster based placement process began on February 12 with companies from across four cohorts -- international investment banks, global strategy consulting, global niche consulting and private equity/ venture capital. Boston Consulting Group and McKinsey recruited more students than last year.

At IIM Indore, final placements for the 2009-11 batch were concluded in a window of five days. The highest domestic compensation offered was Rs 32 lakh per annum which was made by an investment bank. Around 12 per cent of the class secured offers in excess of Rs 20 lakh per annum. The placement process witnessed a participation from almost 100 companies offering a wide array of profiles across functions of finance, marketing, HR and operations, among others.

At Bhubaneshwar-based Xavier Institute of Management (XIM-B), the highest international package offered was $32,650 per annum. The highest domestic salary was Rs 15 lakh per annum. A total of 86 companies participated in the placement process of which over 70 companies made final offers. Of these, 21 were the first time recruiters at XIM-B. At XLRI Jamshedpur, average salary offered was Rs 16.5 lakh, an increase of 9.27 percent over last year's Rs 15.1 lakh. A total of 370 offers were made to a batch of 240 students, making 1.32 offers per student.

Many B-schools are yet to begin the final placement process on their campuses.