Three IIM-A students bag Rs 1 crore package

Cutting across the clouds of economic slowdown, the sun is still shinning over Indian Institute of Management - Ahmedabad. More interestingly, the shine is emerging from where the recession clouds looked the darkest - the financial sector.

In the last two months, three students of IIM-A have bagged Rs 1 crore-plus pre-placement offers (PPO) each from financial institutions. While two offers have been made by Deutsche Bank for their Singapore and London offices, one is from Barclays in Hong Kong. IIM-A sources said one of the offers is the highest PPO ever offered on the campus. Companies offer PPO to a student based on his performance during the summer placement.

Sources on IIM-A's placement committee said the PPOs have come at a time when everyone at campus feared that the economic gloom would be reflected in the financial sector.

However, PPOs proved otherwise. Sources said among the 380 students in the current second-year post-graduate programme in management (PGP), more than 50 have got PPOs. Many of these have come from retail and investment banking companies like Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and Nomura.

"Many such offers were made during 2009 when the average placement offer had come down significantly. The institute learned lessons and we were able to pull up the pay scales in 2010-11, but this year we fear them slipping again. However, the PPOs bring a sense of optimism but we are keeping our fingers crossed," said an IIM-A placement committee member.

However, there is apprehension that the tide can change anytime in the coming months due to the unstable global economic scenario.

"During the worst ever placement scene for IIM-A during 2009 slowdown, many offers were not honoured. This time though, we feel the recruiters were more confident while making PPOs. But, we have changed our placement strategy to lessen the slowdown impact," said IIM-A director, Samir Barua.

The institute is also looking at sectors and companies that are not known as traditional recruiters at the campus. "We are now expanding our reach and trying to get a diverse set of recruiters. We are looking at the core manufacturing sector and companies that haven't been approached," Barua said. The process for final placements will begin from January 2012.