The lateral placements at IIM Calcutta has picked up, raising hopes that final placements next month will emerge from the grip of economic slowdown that had paralysed the campus last year.
Lateral placements refer to placing students who have enrolled for the two-year flagship course with
some work experience. It started a month ago and more than 100 offers have already been made.
In 2007, a year of economic buoyancy, the total lateral offers were slightly more than 100.
“Last year the economic slowdown affected the placements so adversely that we don’t want to speak about the numbers but this year the scenario is no doubt better,” said Prafulla Agnihotri, head of IIM-C’s Career Development and Placement Cell.
The highest annual package offered so far is Rs 20 lakhs. “With another month still left for lateral placements this figure might go up,” Agnihotri said.
The current second year batch has 280 students. Out of them, 170 have work experience ranging from nine months to seven years and are eligible for lateral placements.
Some of the recruiters this year are Cognizant Business Consulting, Deloitte Consulting, Hinduja Group, Aditya Birla Group, Accenture Business Consulting, Mahindra & Mahindra, Essar.
“From consulting to general management, there has been a variety of roles on offer this year compared to last year,” said Samyukktha Thirumeni, external relations representative, IIM-C.