The new year is bringing along with it a lot of hope for the

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IIM students. With pre-placement offers (PPOs) pouring in, students are singing away the recessionary blues. Most of the IIMs are hoping to exceed the 2008-2009 numbers, which saw students bagging about 250 PPOs as compared to over 500 offers made the year before.

“The placement process for the batch of 2010 is on in full swing at IIM-C and as of last week, more than 100 offers (both PPOs and laterals combined) have been received by students from various firms,” said Hariharan Sriram,external relations secretary of IIM-C. Last year the institute bagged about 56 PPOs as against 90 in 2008.

“We've also witnessed an increase in the packages offered to the students, with a few offers above 20 lakh per annum being made. This is a significant improvement compared to last year. But the mood on campus is one of guarded optimism, as the numbers are still not as good as the pre-recession 2007-08 levels,” Sriram said.

The recruiters who have made offers this year include Cognizant Business Consulting, Delloite, Hinduja Group, Aditya Birla Group, Accenture Business Consulting, Mahindra & Mahindra, Virtusa, Essar and Bristlecone.

The scene is not much different at IIM-L. “The PPOs have started coming in from July last year. Together with the laterals, PPOs this year has crossed 100 offers and more are expected to come in until the final placement process begins,” Sharat Chander, member of IIM-L placement cell, said. The total number of firms participating in the placements this year has seen a 100 per cent increase at IIM-L.

Although IIM-Ahmedabad did not disclose details about salary, it said the number of PPOs range between 40 and 50 this year. According to Himanshu Nema, student placement co-ordinator of IIM-A, companies such as Cognizant and Aditya Birla Group have offered jobs. “We expect a larger number of firms to participate in the finals this year,” he added.

At IIM-K, too, the number of PPOs offered this year has seen a significant rise. “PPOs and pre-placement interviews (PPIs) combined, this year we have received about 35 offers as against 20-25 offers received last year,” said Rohan Jaikishen of the student placement committee at IIM-K.

IIM-B, refused to divulge any details about placements. Last year IIM-B got about 40 offers as against 105-110 offers in 2007-08. Lateral placements at the institute began in the third week of December last year and will continue till February 15. Final placements will begin in the first week of March.