Hiring! More PSUs expected on IIT campuses this year

Job prospects for Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) graduates look better this year with public sector undertaking (PSUs) planning to increase to direct hiring from campuses.

PSUs put direct recruitment from IITs on hold after a public interest litigation was filed in 2014 in the Madras high court that said such hiring made it difficult for students from other institutes to get into such companies.

The stay meant PSUs relied only on GATE scores and company-specific exams to recruit engineers. GATE is a nationwide exam for engineering graduates, score of which can be used for post-graduate studies and PSU recruitment.

The Madras HC dismissed the plea in September last year allowing institutes to approach PSUs for direct recruitment again. To be sure, PSUs still recruit using GATE scores and exams to recruit candidates.

The All-IIT Placement Committee (AIPC), the panel responsible for campus placements across IITs, had urged PSUs to recruit from IITs this year. HPCL and CIL have already visited IIT Bombay in April this year offering jobs to around 20 students in Rs 10-12 per annum range.

“We are expecting a positive response from PSUs this year, because of the initiative of the AIPC to reach out to PSUs for their active involvement in the campus placement process,” says Prof Manu Santhanam, placement advisor, IIT Madras.

Prof Debasis Deb, chairman of the career development centre of IIT Kharagpur told HT that they have already received positive responses from PSUs. IITs Gandhinagar and IIT Roorkee too confirmed that PSUs have already confirmed plans to visit the campus. The institutes, however, did not disclose names.

IIT (BHU) Varanasi has been approached by Mishra Dhatu Nigam Ltd (Midhani – a miniratna) for campus hiring. IIT Indore is also in talks with HPCL, Coal India and BPCL.

These placements will happen when the final season starts across IITs in December. However, as on September 15, several companies, mostly in the core engineering sector, have already made pre-placement offers (PPOs) to pick up talent from these institutes.

At IIT Kharagpur, 37 companies have offered 128 PPOs. IIT Roorkee saw 71 PPOs from 16 companies, with Rs 29 lakh being the highest package on offer. IIT Madras saw 35 PPOs from 14 companies, while IIT Indore, one of the newer IITs, received seven offers with Rs 27 lakh being the highest package on offer. These were marginal improvements over last year.

However, students who accept the PPOs will not be able to sit in the final placement season as most IITs plan to stick to one-student-one-job policy despite the recent startup placement fiasco which involved blacklisting of 30 companies. “Any problematic issues, arising due to companies not keeping their promises, will be dealt with on a case by case basis,” Prof Santhanam said.