1,101 students placed with gross salary Rs.14.11 per annum claims IIT-Bombay report card

Even as the manufacturing sector faces a slowdown, the Indian Institute of Technology Bombay (IIT-B) witnessed a much better placement season in the 2018-19 academic year as compared to 2017-18.

According to the recently-released IIT-B placement report for 2018-19, the average gross salary offered on the campus increased to ₹14.11 lakh per annum from ₹12.32 lakh, while the average cost to company rose to ₹17.49 lakh from ₹15.69 lakh. The number of students who got placed also rose to 1,101 from 1,086, and the number of offers from core engineering and technology firms increased to 382 from 324.

In recent years, IIT-B has been witnessing a steady rise in the packages offered by companies. The average gross salary grew by 8% in 2017-18, compared to ₹11.41 lakh in 2016-17. “While a lot of talk about the economic outlook is not good, I believe that this is a sign that organisations are willing to invest in future talent,” said Rituparna Chakraborty, executive vice-president at Team Lease Services, a human-resource consulting agency.

Data from the Central Statistics Office show that India’s factory output growth dropped to 2% in June 2019, as compared to 7% in June 2018. Manufacturing, mining and power generation sectors saw factory outputs decline in June 2019 by 1.2%, 1.6% and 8.2% respectively.

However, at IIT-B, with 382 job offers, the engineering and technology sector has fared better than the last few years. In 2017-18, engineering and technology companies had made 324 offers — down from 345 offers in 2016-17 and 381 offers in 2014-15. The number of job offers in the IT sector increased to 186 in 2018-19 from 177 in 2017-18 and 270 in 2015-16. “The growth is not a lot, but it’s still encouraging,” said Chakraborty.

However, experts claim IIT-B’s rise in global rankings has also helped during placements. “IIT-B has improved its quality of research and industry integration over the past few years to help it rise up in global rankings. It has also forged close ties with Indian start-ups and growing tech companies. Hence, it is no wonder that it has become the top choice for Indian and international companies,” said Akhil Shahani, managing director, The Shahani Group.