Although students do admit that the undergraduate placements were better than the postgraduate and PhD placements, the pressure has mounted on them to bag attractive offers at the 2024 placements.

Two phases of the placement are already over, in December and February. The third and final phase is to take place in May. Most of the rejected students have already started applying for jobs via online platforms. The desperate ones have been seeking referrals from seniors and peers. Some are reportedly thinking of adding to their existing skills and taking additional courses.

The firms that participated in this year’s placement season appeared to be in search of specialised skills and were hiring in small numbers, as per media reports. The hiring numbers have reduced probably because many companies have realised that they overhired in the past, especially during the pandemic. With fears of recession looming large, employers are also being extra cautious. Some of the prominent brands that participated included Ola, Goldman Sachs, Texas Instruments, Bajaj Auto, Air India and Microsoft.

In the first phase of the placement drive, in December, about 1050 pre-placement offers (PPOs) and job offers were made. About 50 international offers were also received from 20 participating organisations from the US, the UAE, the UK, Japan, Hong Kong and the Netherlands.

The students reportedly seem unhappy with the salary packages offered to them, and feel their preparations for the placement have gone waste.

The post Are IIT Delhi students disappointed with placements? appeared first on HR Katha.

The Institute has revealed that its batch of 2022-24 students across the postgraduate diploma in management – business management and human resource management (BM and HRM) have received job offers. The highest domestic package offered was of Rs 75 lakh per annum, from the banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) sector. The median salary was Rs 28 lakh per annum.

It is pertinent to mention here that the median salary offered to the outgoing batch of 2023 was Rs 30 lakhs per annum with the top 10th and 25th percentile averages were Rs 57.7 lakhs and Rs 46.8 lakhs per annum, respectively. The average salary had seen an increase to Rs 32.7 lakhs per annum from Rs 30.7 lakhs per annum in 2022. The highest domestic offer was Rs 78.2 lakhs per annum from the ITES sector and the highest international offer was Rs 1.1 crore per annum for the HR domain.

The top domains based on the roles offered were consulting, sales and marketing, and BFSI, with 43.8 per cent of the students receiving PPOs.

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The Labs, established at the PMC Group of Institutions in Hosur, provide state-of-the-art infrastructure for hands-on experience in renewable energy technologies such as solar and electric vehicles. The curriculum, approved by the Skill Council for Green Jobs, focuses on practical applications in these fields.

Open to final-year students from low-income backgrounds, the programme aims to train 3,000 students annually, with each batch accommodating 30-50 individuals. Successful completion opens doors to interview opportunities in the green sector.

“This initiative empowers disadvantaged youth and women to unlock their potential in green technology,” said Gunjan Patel, Microsoft India Philanthropies. “The Labs bridge the gap between education and industry, creating a more promising and sustainable future.”

Rupa Bohra, managing director, TNS India Foundation, expressed gratitude to Microsoft for their collaboration, stating, “The Green Skills Lab equips underprivileged youth with vital skills for the modern era of sustainable technology.”

The post Microsoft, TNS India launch green skilling programme for youth employability appeared first on HR Katha.

“Today, India stands at the precipice of a technological revolution,” declared Ola founder Bhavish Aggarwal. “This fellowship embodies our commitment to cultivating a robust talent pool and pioneering future technologies, not just for India, but for the world.”

This fellowship serves as a platform to identify, support, and mentor promising graduates with exceptional potential. It underscores Ola’s commitment to fostering innovation, diversity, and excellence within the tech ecosystem. The inaugural programme for AI researchers at IIT Bombay is designed to create a nurturing environment, offering students a blend of fundamental research, real-world experience through internships, and exposure to seminars and conferences.

Technology development forms the bedrock of Ola’s DNA, with a vision of building globally impactful businesses. The company’s substantial R&D investments aim to push the boundaries of science and technology. This programme extends this commitment beyond immediate business needs, fostering collaboration with the nation’s brightest minds.

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Some of the firms that participated in this endeavour to hire top talent with disabilities from premium B-Schools were EY, HDFC ERGO, Axis Bank, Anarock, Lpoint Advisors, RingCentral, Nestle, PhonePe, Brookfield, Godrej Agrovet and Bindwel.

This tie-up with Atypical Advantage is proof of IIM Bangalore’s commitment to upholding inclusivity. The Institute’s Office of Diversity & Inclusion ensures that students with disabilities are able to flourish and overcome the hurdles faced by those with disabilities in an environment that is only growing competitive with each passing year.

The platform has successfully bridged the gap between talent and opportunity, empowering individuals with disabilities to achieve their full professional potential.

Students are offered personalised guidance and support to give their confidence the much-required boost.

Over 26 students with visual impairment, hearing impairment, locomotor disability and even neurodivergent students have been able to land rewarding jobs via this partnership.

Through this collaboration, Vineet Seraiwala, founder and CEO, hopes the platform will be able to “enhance and strengthen the commitment of these institutions to provide equal opportunities and foster inclusivity.”

Atypical plans to achieve similar collaborations with other IIMs to faciliate a “seamless placement process for their students.”

The platform already has a pool of over 15,000 talented people with disabilities, and has worked with more than 250 corporates in the last three years.

The post Atypical Advantage achieves 100% placement for students with disabilities appeared first on HR Katha.

The first edition of Tata Technologies InnoVent was launched in July 2023 to inspire young engineering students across India to showcase their creativity and innovate solutions for the manufacturing industry, across areas such as electric vehicles, autonomous vehicles, cybersecurity, generative artificial intelligence (GAI), and the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Grand Finale Demo Day took place at the global product engineering and digital services company’s headquarters in Hinjawadi, Pune, where the Top 10 teams presented their prototypes. The three winning teams received cash prizes worth Rs 4.5 lakhs, while all the top 10 finalists were offered career opportunities at Tata Technologies.

Subject matter experts (SMEs) from Tata Technologies mentored the teams for over 590 hours via workshops and training sessions to enable them to scale their ideas. This is the company’s way of engaging with the academic community, fostering innovation and creativity among young engineering students and helping them prosper in better careers.

The final evaluations were done by a jury comprising Warren Harris, CEO & MD, Tata Technologies, Ravi Arora, senior vice president & head, group innovation – Tata Sons; Sven Patuschka, CTO – Tata Motors Passenger Vehicles and Tata Passenger Electric Mobility; and Jyotin Kutty Sastabhavan, chief sustainability officer, Tata Motors.

The winning team, Rolex, from Bannari Amman Institute of Technology, Erode, was felicitated with a cash prize of Rs 3 lakhs, for their innovation Generative AI for car design – unleashing creativity and efficiency in automotive styling. Team Blitzkrieg from RVCE, Bangalore, won the second prize of Rs 1 lakh for their design and development of an Autonomous Electric Vehicle (AEV) for Indian roads. The 3rd prize of Rs 5 lakh was won by the team ThunderBolt from VIT, Vellore, for their battery system and pumping station for buses using vanadium redox flow battery. Tata Technologies offered 34 team members from the top 10 teams, an opportunity to start their careers with them.

According to Harris, MD and CEO, Tata Technologies, the company’s “vision of engineering a better world embodies our commitment to innovate sustainable eMobility solutions by collaborating with our entire ecosystem, including the academia.”

Harris was “inspired by the way innovators have applied ingenious, frugal solutions to these issues, blending the finest of human creativity with cutting-edge technology.”

Santosh Singh, EVP and global head, marketing and business excellence, Tata Technologies, believes, “The students today will innovate some of the biggest solutions in the next few years. It is important for us to support, mentor and empower these young engineering minds, equipping them with the skills necessary for a successful career.”

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The offers were made to eligible students across departments such as the School of Technology (KSOT), School of Management (KSOM), School of Rural Management (KSRM), School of Biotechnology (KSBT) and School of Law (KLS).

There has clearly been an increase in the average package being offered compared to previous years.

It was only in 2004 that KIIT was declared a Deemed to be University. However, ever since its establishment, the Institute has been witnessing almost 100 per cent placement across its departments.

The highest CTC offered was that of Rs 63 lakh per annum, by Yugabyte, to students in the School of Technology.

Amazon, Atlassian, LightBeam and other big brands offered CTCs of over Rs. 30 lakh per annum.

More than 155 companies offered CTCs of at least Rs. 5 lakh per annum. Of these, 47 firms, including Dell, VmWare, Cisco, Philips, ION Group, Razorpay Software (P) Ltd, Kickdrum, Silicon Labs, Schlumberger, ZS Associates, BCN, ITRON and Commvault, offered CTCs of Rs. 15 to Rs 25 lakh per annum.

Several big names, such as Tata Chemicals, Tata Power, Fiat India, TVS Motors, JSW Energy, Volvo Group India, Samsung Heavy Industries, Royal Enfield, ArcelorMittal, Nippon Steel India, Dalmia Cement, Ashiana Housing and Schneider Electric, offered CTCs in the range of Rs 5 to Rs 10 lakh per annum.

The highest CTC offered to students in the School of Management was Rs 22.75 lakh per annum.

The placement rate was 89 per cent in the School of Biotechnology, with the highest CTC offered being Rs 7 lakh per annum.

The Law School saw 81 per cent placement, with highest CTC being Rs 21 lakh per annum.

The post 6200 offers, Rs 8.2 lakh avg. salary at KIIT Placement 2023 appeared first on HR Katha.

The first phase of the placement ended in December 2023, and the second one is scheduled for end of January 2024. The research and development (R&D) domain received most of the high-paying job offers at the campus placement drive this year, which saw at least 2,000 students registering. About 60 per cent of these bagged offers.

Rs 36.9 lakh was the average annual salary in research and development (R&D), whereas Rs 32.4 lakh was the average salary in the finance space. It is pertinent to mention here that the average salary in the finance sector was Rs 41.7 lakh last year.

In the engineering and technology space, the average package was Rs 21.88 lakh, while in the IT and software space it was Rs 26.35 lakh. Rs 18.68 was the average package in the consulting space.

The average annual salary was Rs 21.82 lakh in 2022-23, which was more than that of Rs 21.50 lakh per year in 2021-22 and Rs 17.91 lakh per annum in 2020-2021.

About 63 international offers were also made from companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and the Netherlands.

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The students from the ‘reserved’ category have raised their voices against the fact that the forms require them to mention the ‘general’ ranks secured in the JEE-Mains and JEE-Advanced exams.

A student approached the director of IIT-Kanpur with a complaint. He also wrote to the National Commission for Scheduled Castes and various ministries, drawing attention to the form that a company called Merilytics required candidates to fill.

Many students from the reserved category were hesitant to apply because of the requirement to fill that field, as it highlighted the fact that they did not belong to the ‘general’ rank.

There exists a mentorship programme within IIT-Kanpur that is dedicated to mentoring students from the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) and Other Backward Classes (OBC). It is this support group called Global IIT SC/ST Alumni Support Group that drew attention to this ‘discrimination’ at the IIT Kanpur campus. The Group has reported that students at other IITs have also faced such an issue while filling forms for various companies, including Jaguar Land-Rover and Navi.

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The season witnessed participation from GE Healthcare, Asian Paints, Accenture, Aditya Birla Group, Nestle, Shell, ITC, Flipkart, Bajaj Auto, Citi and other regular recruiters.

The average stipend of the top 10 and 25 per cent was Rs 4 lakhs and Rs 3 lakhs, respectively. The mean stipend stood at Rs 2.82 lakhs registering an increase of 7.63 per cent over the previous year.

Maximum number of offers came from the Aditya Birla Group followed by Accenture, Asian Paints, Bajaj Auto, Citi and ITC.

Most of the students will be placed with FMCG companies for internship, followed by manufacturing, conglomerates and pharmaceutical firms.

Of the 71 students who participated, 25 were women. A total of 39 companies made offers.

This season saw nine first-time recruiters, namely BetterPlace, CK Birla Group, Godrej Group, Höganäs, Pine Labs, Shell, Simpl, SKF and VIP Industries.

After a gap, some companies were back to recruit interns, including Cipla, Hindustan Coca Cola Beverages,Larsen & Toubro, RPG Group, and Tata Electronics.

The post Stipend of Rs 4.5 lakh offered at TISS’ summer placement appeared first on HR Katha.

The pyramid-like framework of the strategy comprises a multi-tiered approach to talent engagement. At the base is the company’s effort to reach out to every nook and corner of the diverse Indian landscape. The objective is to make the brand, MakeMyTrip synonymous with limitless opportunities, so that aspiring professional from across the country see the firm in a positive light. This will also help the company uphold its drive for inclusivity and its vision to serve a diverse customer base through a talent pool as diverse as the nation.

The strength for the foundational layer comes from the intermediate tier that focuses on depth of outreach. While specialised hiring is targeted at the premier institutions, MakeMyTrip is upping its engagement with campuses across the spectrum. It is introducing real-world case study competitions, to spot top-tier talent.

The strategy involves a transparent and immersive showcasing of MakeMyTrip’s internal workings. Potential hires are offered a glimpse into ‘A Day in the Life of’ experiences, that reveal the organisation’s ethos, vibrancy and roles. This allows candidates to visualise a future within the MakeMyTrip ecosystem.

As part of this approach, the company has introduced its ‘Limitless with MakeMyTrip – Reimagine Travel’ campaign. This competition called out to students from non-tech and tech campuses, including those from tier-2 and tier-3 cities, to manifest their understanding of the travel ecosystem and creativity in problem-solving. The challenge thrown at the students was to come up with a 90-second social-media reel, with one of the following three themes — ‘Unseen India’, ‘India on a Budget’ and ‘Responsible India’. The challenge received an overwhelming response of more than 4,700 entries, clearly reflecting the campaign’s success in tapping into the latent potential and enthusiasm of Indian youth. Most of the entries came from management campuses such as MDI, IIM Lucknow, IIM Indore, NMIMS, SCMHRD, IMT and technology campuses such as IIT Mumbai, PES, Thapar and IIT Patna.

Yuvaraj Srivastava, group CHRO, MakeMyTrip, is enthused that the brand has been able to play “the catalyst in bringing forth voices from campuses” with this “proactive campus engagement strategy”. He envisions “a future where every talented individual, regardless of background, sees a world of possibilities with MakeMyTrip.”

Undeterred by the slow hiring trends across Indian campuses, MakeMyTrip is determined to strengthen its campus engagement and brand presence. Its progressive approach towards talent acquisition aims to foster a diverse and dynamic workforce that mirrors the vibrancy of India.

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Short for Spirit of Aviation Reimagined, SOAR is a programme that was launched a couple of months back, and is probably the only one of its kind in the aviation space.

The SOAR programme is actually an annual national-level B-school contest involving challenges, and is an important part of Air India’s campus-outreach programme.

The initiative aims to introduce fresh talent to the various aspects of the aviation sector. In doing so, it will build a quality pool of talent for itself.

A positive step in its endeavour to augment talent in the aviation sector, the programme has received a very encouraging response.

More than 25,000 management post-graduate students sent in their applications in just a week’s time.

The SOAR initiative goes beyond a mere recruitment drive. It offers a platform that can be leveraged by not just students, but also the industry and the academia.

The airline presently has a 15,000- strong workforce led by Suresh Dutt Tripathi, as chief human resources officer, Air India.

The first edition of SOAR saw 27 business schools participating. The contest was won by the

Team Horizon of IIM Bangalore. The first runners-up were the team JMH from IMT Ghaziabad, while the teams from IIM Shillong and IIFT were the jointly declared the second runners-up.

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What makes her achievement even more significant is the fact that she comes from a Hindi medium background, according to media reports, which posed a lot of challenges for her. Yet, she not only managed to work hard and overcome all hurdles but was able to bag an internship with Microsoft in the second year of her course. And now this pre-placement offer is the icing on the cake.

In May 2021, Deepthi Narkuti, who completed BTech from the Osmania College of Engineering in Hyderabad was offered a package of Rs 2 crore by Microsoft.

Earlier this year, in April, Avni Malhotra, a student from the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Sambalpur had been offered a package of Rs 64.61 lakh per annum by Microsoft. This was the highest salary secured at IIM Sambalpur this year. In fact, as per the Institute’s social-media post, this offer had increased the highest salary offered the year before by 146.7 per cent.

Jaipur-based Malhotra managed to clear six rounds of interviews to get the offer. Her three years’ work experience at Infosys stood her in good stead at the interview. She completed a BTech in computer science just like Agarwal did, but from a prestigious IIM.

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The maximum offers were bagged by participants from the computer science department (228). While 214 electrical engineering students bagged offers, 78 students from aerospace engineering bagged offers. Twenty-six students from applied statistics and informatics department got offers, while 33 from biosciences and bioengineering department got offers. About 129 civil engineering students got job offers and 191 from the mechanical engineering department too bagged offers.

The drive saw 384 companies taking part and 324 making employment offers. Of the 300 pre-placement offers that were made 194 were accepted by students. Rs 21.82 lakhs per annum was the average salary package offered this time.

The placement drive this season was conducted in the hybrid mode, that is, both offline and online, with 2,174 students registering and 1,845 actually participating.

The Institute was in the news a couple of weeks ago when it received an anonymous donation of Rs 160 crore. The donation was rightly timed too as the Institute has been working on a very limited budget of late.

The post 1,516 students get job offers at IIT Bombay’s 2022-23 placement season appeared first on HR Katha.

“Awestruck by the revolutionary AI technology implemented in Japanese rail systems”, Juuikar claims to be “utterly intrigued and spellbound by the immense possibilities of artificial intelligence”.

He had realised early on, while pursuing a BSc in computer science, from Mumbai University, that if he had to stay relevant, he would have to stay updated with the in-demand skills. Being proactive, he upskilled himself through self-learning and then decided to take up a course in blockchain technology.

Though Google’s selection process is known to be challenging and tough, Juikar was able to sail through the interview with his positive attitude and love for all things new and upcoming. It also helped that he had interned with Google, which gave him much-needed exposure and an opportunity to work with the best in the industry. He interned as network administrator at Google, Hyderabad, for six months and then as junior data scientist for over a year, at Bengaluru. The internship also made him familiar with the work culture at the tech giant and gave him a chance to work on data analytics, statistical techniques, problem solving, machine learning, Google cloud performing (GCP) and Linux system administration.

Interestingly, Juikar is a state-level bronze medalist in badminton and silver medalist in swimming,

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Through this six-month internship programme, the interns will undergo a specialised learning plan with identified goals and collaboration opportunities.

While the programme is presently limited to Hyderabad, Deliveroo plans to make the same available in other regions across the country, for which it intends to collaborate with more institutions.

The interns will be selected via a campus hiring programme comprising interviews and assessments to test their technical, interpersonal and prototyping skills. Once selected, the students will be given a chance to work closely with Deliveroo’s engineering teams, focussed on restaurant tech, delivery, consumer tech, finance, as well as care and trust. They will also be able to master various software such as Kafka, Docker, Ruby on Rails, React and Go.

According to Sashi Somavarapu, vice president – engineering and country head, Deliveroo India, the programme will give the students the much needed “practical exposure to disruptive technology that happens at Deliveroo every day”. The company is looking to tie up with various academic institutions across the country, “which will help us eventually create a deeper talent pool for IDC in the coming years”.

The first phase of the programme will see students from Vasavi Engineering College, who are majoring in computer science and information technology, being put on an accelerated career path. This will facilitate their better absorption into a corporate environment.

The exposure at the IDC will help these interns transition smoothly from a college environment to a corporate one. Being amidst skilled and experienced people during the internship will also motivate them to do well and overcome challenges at the workplace.

It is pertinent to mention here that Deliveroo’s IDC is the largest technology hub outside of the UK. About 140 out of Deliveroo’s 600-strong global engineering workforce is based out of this centre, with talent specialising in analytics, platforms, automation and machine learning.

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The average salary offered to female students was Rs 18.25 lakhs.

Amongst the organisations that participated at the placement this year were Accenture, Microsoft, Amazon, Ernst & Young, Amul, Vedanta and Deloitte.

About 130 companies participated and the the number of first-time recruiters went up by 56 per cent.

The average salary has gone up by 26 per cent and the median salary has gone up by 29 per cent this year at IIM Sambalpur. The top ten students of the batch bagged an average salary of Rs 31.69 lakh per annum.

In January, the Indian Institute of Management in Rohtak (IIM-R) also witnessed a remarkable 16% rise in the annual CTC offered to its students during the job placement process for its two-year post-graduate programme.

The average salary for the Post Graduate Program (PGP) offered was Rs18.73 lakh, showing a 16.7 per cent increment compared to the previous year’s average salary, which was about Rs 16.06 lakh.

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The drive, which was clearly successful — with all the enrolled students being handed offer letters — saw more than 160 recruiters offering jobs to 568 students belonging to the postgraduate programme (PGP) and Integrated Programme in Management (IPM).

It is reported that the median salary was Rs 27.20 lakh per annum, which is also 12.9 per cent more than last year.

The recruiters represented various domains including finance, consulting, human resources, operations, product management, analytics, sales, marketing and general management.

The over 80 new employers who participated for the first time included names such as Adani Group, Alkem Laboratories, Aarti Industries, African Industries Group, DISYS, Delhivery, Ambit Capital, Citi, Dolcera, DCM Shriram, Bira 91, BlackRock, CavinKare and Edelweiss Alternative Asset Advisors.

While 29 per cent of the class were roped in by consulting firms — including Bain & Company, Ernst & Young, Deloitte India, Deloitte USI, Accenture Strategy, Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Accenture Tech Consulting, Acuvon Consulting, Aspect Ratio, Avalon Consulting, Everest Group, EY Parthenon — about 18 per cent of the batch bagged offers from the finance sector.

Most of the offers in the sales and marketing space came from companies such as Hero MotoCorp, IBM, AB InBev, Asian Paints, HUL, Infosys, Johnson & Johnson, Atomberg Technologies, Bajaj Auto, CavinKare, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, and so on.

The information technology sector made offers to about 16 per cent of the batch, from companies such as Cognizant, Capgemini, American Express and Amazon amongst others.

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A recent study by campus hiring experts reveals that only about 5.5 per cent of the total candidates who appeared for the placement drive got a package of Rs 50 lakhs per annum or above.

That means, not more than 960 students bagged lucrative offers as per expectations.

It is reported that almost 54 per cent of the students in the top tier, numbering about 7,020, and half of the students in the next level, numbering about 2,250, bagged job offers with salary packages between Rs 10 and Rs 16 lakh per annum.

About 1,430 of the top-tier students, that is, about 11 per cent received jobs that pay Rs 16 lakh per annum. About 40 per cent of students in the second tier, that is, about 1,800 in number, got offers of Rs 16 lakh per annum.

Clearly, it is not really the organisations in the top tier that pay the highest salaries even though they may be the ones hiring ace-quality talent from the IITs.

While nearly 90 per cent of students who participated in the placement drives accepted a job offer, maximum jobs went to students of computer science engineering, electronics and communication engineering, as well as streams such as electrical and electronics, artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science.

Higher salaries were offered to participants from the IITs of Mumbai, Madras, Delhi, Kharagpur, Kanpur, Guwahati, Roorkee, BHU Varanasi and Hyderabad, as compared to students from the IITs Dhanbad (ISM), Ropar, Bhubaneswar, Gandhinagar, Jodhpur, Patna, Indore and Mandi campuses.

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A total of 33 women participated in the placement drive and a total of 77 offers were made in the HR domain. About 36 companies participated, of which two were first-time recruiters.

The highest stipend offered was Rs 4 lakhs for two months, while the average of the top 25 per cent of the offers stood at Rs 3.2 lakhs.

The mean stipend was Rs 2.62 lakhs for two months, which was 11.4 per cent more than last year, while the median stipend was Rs 3 lakhs for two months, which was 25 per cent more than last year.

The companies that participated in the summer placement drive included Nestle, Mahindra & Mahindra, Aditya Birla Group, Citi, HUL, ITC, Marico, P&G, RPG, TAS, Disney Star, Tata Steel, Aon, EY, Pernod Ricard India and Texas Instruments.

ReNew Power and PowerGrid were the companies from the energy sector that participated. From the healthcare space, the participants were Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, Piramal Group, GE Healthcare, Providence and Sun Pharma. Samsung India, Samsung R&D and Wipro were the participants from the engineering and tech space.

The maximum offers came from Amazon, followed by Aditya Birla Group, Asian Paints, Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories, Piramal Group, Reliance and Tata Steel.

Most of the internships were offered in the conglomerates, followed by the consulting, pharma and FMCG sectors.

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That means, present students of Class 12, irrespective of their background, can also apply. However, the course will only begin after they complete their Class 12.

Interested students from any stream can enrol for the programme as long as they have studied English and mathematics in Class 10. The last date to apply (for the 2022 batch ) is 19 August, 2022 on https://onlinedegree.iitm.ac.in

This is a great opportunity for students from the rural areas and from economically backward families to fulfil their dreams. Geographical location is no hurdle either as the classes will be conducted online. There is a provision for deserving but financially weak students to avail a 100 per cent scholarship too.

There are already 13,000 students enrolled in this job-oriented rogramme presently. The initiative will also allow students to choose between an eight-month apprenticeship or a project with various research institutes or organisations.

Exams or assessments are conducted across 111 cities in the country, as well as in Bahrain, Kuwait, Sri Lanka and UAE.

With this programme, IIT Madras hope to create a pool of skilled and job-ready professionals to meet the surging global demand.

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The students, Amit Agarwal and Sarthak Bharadwaj, are in the final year of the Computer Science Engineering course at VIT. The two had interned with the same Company for their summer internship and received pre-placement offers (PPO).

A total of 184 students from the 2023 graduating batch received PPOs from various companies post their summer internship with them. While Microsoft made 22 PPOs, DE Shaw made two, Fidelity investments made 24 and JP Morgan made a whopping 82. About 32 PPOs also came from The Math company, and eight from Wells Fargo. Infosys and Schneider Electric made seven PP offers each.

The placement drive at VIT began in the second week of July for the batch graduating in 2023. The first phase of the drive saw participation from Airbnb, Microsoft, Morgan Stanley, DE Shaw and Media.net among others. Others companies including Wells Fargo , Meesho, Walmart Labs, Amazon, Texas Instruments, Silicon labs, Krypto and Arcesium will also be participating in the coming weeks. The placements will go on till the end of August.

While Microsoft made full-time offers to 45 students, DE Shaw made two, Morgan Stanley offered three, Airbnb gave away four offers and Media.net made just one offer.

Students from all four campuses of VIT, that is, Vellore, Chennai, Amaravati and Bhopal, took part in this centralised placement process, in a hybrid mode, involving pre-placement discussions, online tests, as well as HR and technical interviews.

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With about 62 companies participating, 119 students from the 16th batch of PGPX have bagged offers, most of which came from Accenture and Adani Digital.

Amongst the participants were top names, such as Google, Microsoft, BCG SEA (South-East Asia), BCG India, Ola Electric, Decimal Technologies, Flipkart, Bain, PwC, Magicpin, UBS, Lenskart, Gujarat Gas, McKinsey, EY-Parthenon, Genpact, ElasticRun, Skit.ai, Gujarat Gas, Monitor, Deloitte, Eques Capital, Arthur D. Little, Amazon, Simplilearn, Indegene, FinIQ, Persistent, and Pravaig.

This year, there has been more demand for talent for strategic roles such as that of CEO, director, programme head, ecosystem and marketing head, young leadership programme head, vice president, chief of staff, product head and more.

Meanwhile, Jamia Milia Islamia (JMI) posted the highest overall placement performance for its 2022 batch. A significant improvement has been observed in offers across BTech, MTech, MCA, MBA, Diploma, BCom, MCom and MA Economics courses.

Over a 100 companies participated, with the highest salary package of up to Rs 25 lakh for Btech students, being offered by Amazon. The average package for Btech Computer Science was around Rs 10 lakh, while for MBA it was Rs 8.8 lakh and for MCA, Rs 8.2 lakh

Down south, in Andhra Pradesh, over 1,000 students from the Aditya Institute of Technology and Management (AITAM) at Tekkali in Srikakulam district were able to bag offers from Wipro, DXC Technology, HCL Technologies and other companies in the placement process.

About 375 students got placed with Wipro.

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Freshers graduating from the top-tier colleges have seen a record number of placements this year. The average placement salaries have also gone up significantly. 

For IIT-Bombay, the number of graduates bagging job offers on campus stood at 1,723, coming from 315 companies, in the first phase of the placement. The institute released a statement saying that this was an all-time record for placement in the first phase.

Seven students are reported to have received offers above Rs 1 crore from international companies, while five received a similar package from domestic organisations. The highest domestic package offered was of Rs 1.68 crores and the highest international CTC was to the tune of Rs 2.16 crores per annum. 

For IIT-Delhi, the first day of the placement drive itself witnessed about 60 offers above Rs 1 crore. The institute discloses that 1,250  jobs were grabbed by its students in the first two weeks of the placement drive. 

IIT-Kanpur also witnessed a record number of offers, totalling 1,300. The highest package crossed Rs 2 crores this year. The institute has witnessed a jump of 150 per cent in the number of offers. 

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When youngsters ponder over the line of work they should opt for in the future, a career in HR is rarely the first thing that comes to mind. To a great extent, this can be attributed to the fact that there is a clear outline regarding the specific academic achievements required to venture into various careers or fields other than HR.

Take a career in engineering, for instance. Aspirants are aware that they need to study science subjects at the senior secondary level, then obtain a bachelor’s degree in technology or engineering before pursuing a post-graduate degree, if required.

“When I started my career in HR, industrial engineering was preferred. Later on, however, social work became the most preferred line of education, followed by psychology, sociology and economics”

P Dwarakanath,, former chairman, GSK Consumer Healthcare

However, to enter the people’s business, there is no clear-cut path as to what a person needs to accomplish. For HR, it is more open-ended. People hailing from diverse backgrounds, academically speaking, can make a mark in this profession. However, what sort of degree or subject at the graduate level one can pursue at the graduate level is a question that is still open for debate.

Veteran HR and IR leader and former chairman of GSK, P Dwarakanath, spells out the four subject areas that can serve as a stepping stone for a person’s career in HR. The areas in his order of preference are: social work, psychology, sociology and economics.

He goes on to elaborate that there was a time when people coming from a social work background formed the majority. Nowadays, however, 50-60 per cent MBA grads are engineers. Entrance exams too are more skewed towards quantity and not quality of talent. He recalls, “When I started my career in HR, industrial engineering was preferred. Later on, however, social work became the most preferred line of education, followed by psychology, sociology and economics”.

He has personally observed that core HR professionals, even today, come from a social work background.

“Students can be better oriented towards a career in HR if they inculcate the basics of management at the graduation level”

Sriharsha Achar, CHRO, Star Health and Allied Insurance

“Social work deals with every aspect of HR — productivity, welfare, personal relations and so on — all of which come under the ambit of this vast subject, the application of which directly translates into HR,” he enunciates.

Dwarakanath also draws attention to the growing presence of engineers in the field of HR at the moment.

Sriharsha Achar, CHRO, Star Health and Allied Insurance, says that students can be better oriented towards a career in HR if they inculcate the basics of management at the graduation level. “Back when we were studying, there used to be a subject across graduation level that dealt with basic management. I believe, such a subject — which explains what is management and cuts across human resource management, product management, business management and so on — taught in the last semester is crucial to obtaining a basic understanding of what management is all about,” he says. Achar adds that the subject needs to hold more weightage because the basic understanding of management before pursuing a postgraduation is beneficial for a person, irrespective of his line of work, and not only HR.

Ravi Mishra, SVP-HR, Aditya Birla Chemicals, asserts that to be a successful human resources executive, a deeper understanding of human psychology is essential. He believes that while a person can build this understanding during his career, a pre-exposure to it can definitely provide a much-needed boost. “At the end of the day, HR is a people’s business. What one needs is a deep understanding of how people think and feel in particular situations or when presented with certain challenges.

“To be a successful HR professional a deeper understanding of human psychology is essential”

Ravi Mishra, SVP-HR, Aditya Birla Chemicals

The veteran HR leader states that in order to get the maximum productivity from the people, “it is essential for an HR person to understand the basic concept, ‘performance is the multiple of a person’s ability and motivation. To nurture both of these, a deeper understanding of people mentality is helpful’.”

He also believes that it would be useful for HR people to have an understanding of the geographical and sociological specificities of the area and people they may be working with.

In a culturally diverse country such as India, one will have to work with people from different cultures and communities, possessing a different mental and cultural bend, all the time. Hence, a general geopolitical and sociological understanding is also a sought-after quality for an HR person.

The post What subjects should one graduate in for a bright future in HR? appeared first on HR Katha.

About 212 placement offers were made during the placement drive in a span of 14 days. The highest pay package was offered by Analog Devices of Rs 20 LPA. The virtual drive saw participation from companies, such as Motorola, Agile Solutions, Mentor Graphics, Metric Stream, Deloitte, Amazon, Quotient Technologies, Providence Global Software, Tek Systems, USI, Informatica , Adobe India, Josh Technologies, CDK Global, Accolite Digital and so on.

While four students have secured offers over Rs 20 lakh per annum, 18 received offers of over Rs 15 lakh per annum, and 44 bagged offers over Rs 12 lakhs per annum. About 170 students got offers of over Rs 7.5 lakhs per annum, while 212 got offers above Rs five lakhs per annum.

Koneru Satyanarayana, president, KL Deemed-to-be University, appreciated “the efforts of heads of departments, faculty, and staff in guiding the students in attaining success” in the placements season 2021-22.

GP Saradhi Varma, in-charge vice-chancellor, KL Deemed-to-be University, reveals that the University’s” placement cell operates round the year to facilitate contacts between companies and graduates”. He also shared that “training sessions are conducted to impart specialised skills, and knowledge of cutting-edge technology to help the students obtain jobs in national and international companies.”

The Training and Progression Division has trained the students on verbal, quant, aptitude, reasoning and logic on programmes including C, C++, Python and JAVA, along with industry skill certifications and skill-development programmes organised by the University’s Skill Development Division on Salesforce, ServiceNow, Pega, Automation Anywhere, Tessolve, ByteXL, Huawei, NI, CISCO, AWS and Microsoft Azure.

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Freshers which are onboarded through the company’s flagship campus hiring programme which has recently concluded, will now go through a year-long structured learning and development programme, which will include six months of technical training and another six months of on-the-job training, for which they will join the sites. The Company hopes to build a talent pipeline for the coming future through this fresher hiring.

Some of them will also go through the leadership-development programme, which will take on future leadership roles.

Apart from the in-house trainers, these new recruits will have mentors or buddies, who help them understand the culture of the Company and also lend support throughout the on-the-job training of the new hires.

‘As of now, for technical development, everything will be done virtually, where our in-house trainers will prepare the new hires for the jobs they are going to take up,” shares Sharma with HRKatha.

Through the recent campus hiring activity, Aarti Industries has hired 180 freshers adding to the talent pipeline out of which 90 per cent will go into plants all across geographical areas in the country.

For its campus hiring, the Company virtually connected with over 36 campuses amongst the top IITs and ISB in India.

Since the company requires a very niche talent, campus hiring is rather rigorous at Aarti, with multiple rounds and tests. First, the candidates go through an aptitude test coupled with a case study round. Then comes the HR round, following which the candidates are put through some psychometric tests and also a medical test to see their fitness level. This is important as many of them would have to work at the sites, which requires physical fitness. In fact, of 200 candidates initially finalised, some had to back out as they were not able to clear the medical test. A huge team of 30 HR and line managers was involved in the whole process. Line managers also evaluate the candidates during the hiring process.

“We do not mind even If we lose this talent because our focus is on the greater purpose of developing the chemical sector in India ”

Manoj Kumar Sharma, CHRO, Aarti Industries

When the freshers are in the development stage, as per the needs of the company, technical engineering skills are developed in the new hires which are unique to the company needs and certain behavioral skills are also embedded. Sharma mentions that all the learning and development which happens is not just with the aim of developing talent just for the company, this talent if and when moves out will serve greater purpose for the whole industry which runs on chemical engineering supremacy.

“We do not mind even If we lose this talent because our focus is on the greater purpose of developing the chemical sector in India, ”says Sharma proudly.

According to Sharma, it requires a lot of advance planning to hire from the campus virtually. The preparations started in the month of October 2020, and now, after evaluating 2500 students across campuses — which was all done virtually — the campus-acquisition team at Aarti Industries has ramped up the whole process this month itself. Last year as well, the Company hired 148 freshers, despite the pandemic. As per Sharma, unlike other sectors, Aarti caters to businesses in the pharma sector, which actually saw a boom during the last one and a half years. That explains the phenomenal growth the Company experienced. Aarti Industries also caters to other sectors, such as agriculture and food production.

As per Sharma, the flow of the programme was smooth, with no challenges being encountered in connecting with the new hires, except for the process being quite lengthy, and for which the Company had to start planning much in advance. Of course, the trust factor played a crucial role. “In physical hiring, the look and feel plays a bigger role, both from the employer’s side and the candidates’ side. If the trust factor of the candidates is also quite high, the recruiters can make a good judgement while hiring,” says Sharma.

If all goes well, the new recruits are expected to hit the plants in the second week of September, provided the situation remains calm and normal. The last batch had to continue working from home till November, as the Company did not want to compromise on the health and safety of the recruits. Till the time the new joinees hit the shop floor, they are trained virtually on systematic modules covering all theory.

In fact, Sharma reveals that to engage these newly-recruited freshers, the HR team also organised a virtual meet named as ‘Coffee with the CHRO’, where Sharma interacted with all of them and cleared whatever doubts or questions they had about the Company and all its processes.

Sharma reveals that Aarti Industries is already prepping for the next campus-hiring programme, wherein it plans to hire another 200 to 250 professionals.

The post How Aarti Industries hires niche talent from campus appeared first on HR Katha.

The programme will include a free plan for a year and is aimed at equipping colleges and universities to prepare their students for the most in-demand jobs. It has tied up with more than 50 colleges, including IIT Madras, IIT Roorkee, IIT Ropar, and NIT Jamshedpur, that are using the programme to prepare their students for placements and jobs. Through the programme, students will be exposed to software development, product management, data science, data engineering, data analytics, core engineering, consulting, finance, digital marketing and HR.

The ed-tech company is automating the country’s examination preparation landscape for public-sector employment. It allows students to learn at their own convenient pace. Testbook has signed MoUs with the country’s best educational institutions to impart professional skills training so that students can bag high-paying jobs.

Ashutosh Kumar, founder and CEO, Testbook.com, reveals that the “unique 360-degree Skilled Campus Programme is specially designed for students for their professional skill development and training.” The objective is to “make India more tech-driven”, and therefore, the Company is trying to reach out to as many educational institutes in the country. The programme has already benefitted over 80,000 students till date.

Its collaborations with big names allows it to bring in industry experts from Google, Amazon, Adobe, Oracle, Microsoft, and the likes to share insights with the students, guide them and offer a roadmap for a job.

Pranjal Jain, UG placement head, IIT Madras, reveals how Testbook ensures “that the aptitude tests provided are up to the standards of the students at the institute and provide a plethora of study material for students to prepare from. Most importantly, they provide a detailed analysis of the performance on an individual basis as well as an institute level, which allows students to target achieving new heights with each attempt. ”

Based on the eight pillars required for 360° job preparation for college students, the programme will offer internships and job opportunities, skills training, mentorship from industry experts, aptitude preparation, technical subject preparation, hands-on projects, GD/PI preparation, periodic tests and assessments. It covers sectors such as tech, product, marketing, business operations, content, design, video editing, HR and much more. Through ‘Testbook Pass’, it prepares students for public and private-sector jobs for campus placements and recruitment exams across engineering, civil services, banking and insurance, railways, defence, teaching and so on.

With 15 million registered users and 700,000 active subscribers, Testbook.com serves boasts of over 38, 000 selections during the past three years.

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According to the findings of ‘The State of Online Examinations 2021 Report, by Mercer | Mettl, an overwhelming three-fourths (76 per cent) of respondents — comprising deans, HODs, professors and other decision-makers, from over 150 educational institutions from across 18 countries — confirmed that online exam service providers fulfilled almost all their exam-related requirements, although some areas could do with certain improvements.

Of the 650 respondents, a good 64 per cent reported using online exam platforms to conduct semester exams for final year students, mainly to help them obtain their degrees and aid employment opportunities. About 53 per cent said it was their priority to focus on semester exams for non-final year students.

The survey studied the impact of COVID-19 on examinations and how the education sector embraced the digital ecosystem and ensured examination continuity in the past year or so.

About 56 per cent of those surveyed admitted to not having ever conducted online examinations before the pandemic. This proves that there was overdependence on traditional means, which made it rather challenging for academia to shift to the ‘online’ mode.

However, the positive thing here is that education sector has been able to swiftly accept digital assessment tools, and adopt and leverage technology for smooth examinations. Even those who were not exposed to digital means before the pandemic have exhibited high satisfaction post adoption of technology.

About 57 per cent, that is, 6 out of 10 respondents were majorly concerned about cheating in offering online examinations, admitting that more than anything else, their focus was to offer exams in a sanitised environment. This means, service providers are expected to enhance their platforms to ensure anti-cheating features in place. Most (7 out of 10 respondents) expect better mechanisms from online exam service providers to ensure that virtual examinations can be free of cheating altogether. A good 62 per cent expect to be able to stage multiple types of exams (MCQs, descriptive, diagram type, etc.). Universities and colleges are willing to use online platforms and work with service providers to improve their offerings.

A majority of respondents are happy to be able to design question papers for diverse subjects as and see this as a huge advantage of the virtual platform over offline exams. Over 46 per cent said this is what they preferred the most, while 42 per cent said exam evaluation and the grading process was the biggest benefit.

Siddhartha Gupta, CEO, Mercer | Mettl, expects “the report to encourage educational institutions to consider innovative approaches to examination in 2021 and beyond.”

With a mix of remote online exams and traditional centre-based and offline exams, the hybrid model of exams will be the way forward in 2021 and beyond, according to 63 per cent of educational institutions.

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Banipreet Raheja who is pursuing a Dual Degree CSE at IIT(ISM) has been offered a package of Rs 90 lakh, while, Abhinav Bajpai has been offered a package of Rs 81 lakhs per annum.

This year, about 144 companies participated in the drive.

The highest package received last year was from Google, of about 54-57 lakhs. Before that, in 2012, a student had been offered an annual package of Rs 56 lakh from Facebook.

Meanwhile, in Telangana, the state has created the Campus Placement Umbrella (CPU), which began last September, to bring all constituent and affiliated engineering colleges to JNTU under it. It recommends necessary skill sets to improve student employability and advises faculty. The CPU encourages student participation by engaging in various academic activities.

It has also conducted a virtual conference in May this year with participation of UNYCC, TASK, TSIC along with the representatives of the corporate community. The conference introduced students from all the 33 districts of Telangana to the skill sets and work culture necessary for improving workforce demand.

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However, the reverse process also happens – the interviewee is also doing the same. He/she is evaluating the future boss.

This is why candidates are advised to meet the reporting manager before accepting a job offer.

Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen. There are instances when candidates do not even get to meet their immediate reporting managers during an interview. The reasons could be many — they may be out of town or preoccupied with other commitments.

“An interview is after all a conversation between two individuals that allows each to evaluate the other. As a candidate, one can evaluate the person across the table by the nature and quality of questions and the way they respond to questions one may have.”

Hari TN, head – HR, Big Basket

HR leaders, though, term it as a very callous way of recruiting. Especially in lateral hiring if the would-be boss or reporting manager is not present at the interview to assess a potential hire, it is seen as an act of callousness bordering on insensitivity.

Hari TN, head – HR, Big Basket, explains the importance of meeting the reporting boss.

“An interview is after all a conversation between two individuals that allows each to evaluate the other. As a candidate, one can evaluate the person across the table by the nature and quality of questions and the way they respond to questions one may have,” he says.

Ashish Anand, group CHRO, SAR Group also stresses on the importance of meeting the future manager. He strongly believes that during interviews candidates do assess their interviewer and in many cases, they also reject a job offer if they do not get a feeling of comfort from the future manager or the interviewer.

Debjani Roy, chief HR officer, Mind Your Fleet, feels that reporting managers not meeting the candidate is not just a bad practice, but even unjust.

“During interviews candidates do assess their interviewer and in many cases, they also reject a job offer if they do not get a feeling of comfort from the future manager or the interviewer.”

Ashish Anand, group CHRO, SAR Group

“A person who couldn’t care enough to spend some time with a person who would be part of every waking hour of that person at work. I don’t think such a person qualifies to be a manager or leader. Such people should not have a team reporting to them in the first place,” Roy asserts.

“People who really care about building a team, will have a genuine interest in the hire, irrespective of the level,” she adds.

Even if the company doesn’t arrange for an interview, the candidate should insist on one.

Yes of course, there are other ways to evaluate the reporting boss.

Hari believes there are several cues that a smart candidate can read to gauge the intellect, operating style, and values of the boss during interviews.

Roy agrees, “Candidates do observe the body language, use of certain words, tone, and whether the interviewer is sensible enough to make one feel comfortable and the kind of questions the person poses.”

“A person who couldn’t care enough to spend some time with a person who would be part of every waking hour of that person at work. I don’t think such a person qualifies to be a manager or leader. Such people should not have a team reporting to them in the first place.”

Debjani Roy, chief HR officer, Mind Your Fleet

Roy is quick to add that 30-45 minutes is too short a time to judge a person – be it the interviewer or interviewee. However, she is also of the opinion that intelligent candidates usually come well prepared and they are greater observers and are able to gauge and sometimes even lead the interview in the right direction.

Some HR experts also suggest that it’s important to research not just about the company, but also the interviewer. It’s important to be informed about the would-be manager’s career progression, thoughts, beliefs and leadership qualities, and all of these information is available in professional social media websites.

Next candidates shouldn’t be hesitant to ask questions of their would-be bosses, it is time to discard that hesitance. To be curious about a person one is about to report to, is not a sin at all!

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Interestingly, this was the batch with the highest number of students. No international recruiters had participated this year. However, the highest annual package of Rs 18.66 lakhs was offered by a domestic company. The average package for the top quartile of the batch was Rs 15.94 lakh per annum, while the overall average CTC was Rs12.68 lakhs per annum.

In the operations domain, offers came from marketing, sales, finance, analytics and human resources. Offers also came from the Big Four accounting firms, Deloitte and Ernst & Young, for roles in strategy, advisory and consulting.

IIM Amritsar looks forward to collaborating with new firms in the future. Amongst the regulars, big names names such as Tech Mahindra, Cipla, Grant Thornton, Infosys, ICICI Lombard, Anand Rathi, Polycab, Accenture, Xiaomi, Amazon, and Mu Sigma have shown their faith in the talent offered by the Institute again and again. Amongst the first-time recruiters this season were HCL, Gartner and Capital Foods.

The online convocation for the students of the MBA 19-21 batch will be held on May 29.

The post 100% placement for IIM Amritsar’s 5th MBA batch appeared first on HR Katha.

For any person or a professional, the transition from campus to the first job brings in a lot of excitement. There is a thrill of starting a new life, bonding with colleagues, commuting to office, experiencing the facilities. They have not had a chance to create any exciting memories of their workplace. Deprived of conversations, challenges, celebrations and team gatherings, this crop has missed out on a lot.

Since they have not had a chance to experience and taste the work culture at all, nor meet their team members and team leads in person, it is difficult for them to feel comfortable, sustain themselves and be productive. In fact their challenges at work are quite different from other employees. Because the personal rapport is missing, the new joinees are reluctant to seek help from their seniors, bosses or colleagues, when they face some hiccups at work.

A senior HR leader from a large online gaming company, on condition of anonymity, revealed to HRKatha that most of the freshers hired in the pre-lockdown period have left the firm disgruntled.

After all, there is a world of difference between interacting with someone virtually and meeting someone in person. However, given the limitations of the current scenario, organisations have tried to do their best, in their own unique ways.

“In today’s circumstances, we believe in promoting inclusivity amongst team members who are working remotely, as this way they will feel the connect, and experience a feeling of being together and working together.”

Sailesh Menezes, senior director and head of human resource, HPE India

HPE (Hewlett Packard Enterprise) believes that even if the newly joined employees have not seen the office or met their team members, it is important for them to feel connected with the Company, when they are introduced to the culture of the firm. Such practices, even though followed virtually, keep the link alive and ensure that team members stay connected.

This is why HPE has created a team of volunteers who are known as ‘culture catalysts,’ and this tea, organises virtual events in line with the culture of the organisation. These events embody the values and culture of the Company.

In one such event called ‘Team member appreciation day,’ all employees appreciate each other, as appreciation of colleagues is an integral part of the HPE culture. This event was conducted globally, via virtual tools, and was a massive success.

“In today’s circumstances, we believe in promoting inclusivity amongst team members who are working remotely, as this way they will feel the connect, and experience a feeling of being together and working together,” says Sailesh Menezes, senior director and head of human resource, HPE India.

“The battle to fully integrate employees into the social fabric of the company is on. We are experimenting with different initiatives to help employees develop social connect, which is so vital for workplace effectiveness.”

Satyajit Mohanty, CHRO, Crompton Electricals

Companies, in fact, are doing all they can to keep the engagement quotient up for the new joinees.

An HR head of a mid-sized global IT Infrastructure company based out of Pune in India, acknowledges the problem and shares how his company had launched an initiative, ‘Missing the office’ which saw teams preparing a video, including pictures that showed how the company used to celebrate some key festivals, such as Holi and New Year. These videos gave the new joinees a peek into the organisation’s activities and practices, and refreshed the memories of old employees.

The company also took small steps to integrate new joinees with the workforce. It encourages its employees to keep their videos on during virtual meetings with their colleagues and team members so that everyone can put a face to the voice they are hearing, which is crucial to establishing a connect.

IBS Software, the tech firm, organised a surprise virtual music festival called ‘LiveWire’. It had 16 musicians from IBS Software performing, with their CEO himself strumming the guitar with the band. They played all sorts of songs and in different languages, such as English, Hindi, Malayalam and Tamil. The event took all the employees by surprise as nobody had any clue that such an event was brewing.

“Freshers may have read about business operations and the challenges it brings theoretically but working virtually, they may have not experienced it on ground or practically.”

Rajeev Singh, CHRO, Yokohama Off-Highway Tires

Not just the one-off events, companies are also doing regular activities to keep the workforce engaged.

At Sony Pictures, ever since the lockdown last year, the department heads follow a practice of calling their team members daily, even if it is just to say ‘hi’. This is to ensure that employees feel the connection with their office and are aware that their employers are concerned about them. Also, the HR team members try to replicate their impromptu office ‘floor walks’ by virtually connecting with employees to check whether everything is ok with them and their families.

Crompton Electricals also conducts a virtual meet called ‘Chai-Pe-Charcha’ where all managers meet their team members and have a chat with them.

At the Pune based mid-sized global IT Infrastructure company whenever a new employee joins, the HR head himself, along with the company’s MD meets all of them virtually. A few months later, they meet again to check and take feedback on their experience so far. The new joinees are allowed to field all kinds of questions. These queries can be related to anything and everything, and therefore, a level of transparency is successfully created.

“For us, creating transparency has always been the key to enhancing employee connect with the organisation,” says the HR Head.

Rajiv Singh, CHRO, Yokohama Off-Highway Tires, opines, “The onboarding process is the first stage where the organisation and the employee start to know each other. Now, with the virtual onboarding process, it takes a lot for the HR team and the employee to go through the process and understand each other.”

Apart from engagement, new joinees also face problems in day to day work. Freshers feel challenged, while understanding the challenges and nuances of your role. “These people may have read about business operations and the challenges it brings theoretically but working virtually, they may have not experienced it on ground or practically.” Singh says

This is why it is important to gauge the employee mood regularly. Crompton Electricals, for instance, tracks employee sentiments in real time with an AI-powered employee-engagement tool.

Satyajit Mohanty, CHRO, Crompton Electricals, says, “The battle to fully integrate employees into the social fabric of the company is on. We are experimenting with different initiatives to help employees develop social connect, which is so vital for workplace effectiveness.”

Mohanty also shares a feedback of one of the employees at Crompton Electricals who joined the company a few months back. He says, “I was very apprehensive about joining. It was wonderful to experience such a smooth onboarding and assimilation process.”

The post Directly from campus to WFH: How are the first-time employees coping up appeared first on HR Katha.

One of the main focus areas is to develop a Model-Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) framework to overcome some of the present challenges in the automotive and aerospace industry, such as product complexity management, net-zero sustainability solutions, enhanced safety, productivity and training in workspaces. Additionally, Capgemini is providing project management, mentoring, funding and Subject Matter Expert (SME) support to the students working on this project.

Nisheeth Srivastava, chief technology and innovation officer for Capgemini in India said, “The uniqueness of the collaboration is based on the digital co-innovation framework that we formulated with the IIT (ISM) Dhanbad’s accomplished academics and student interns.” He is confident that given IIT (ISM)Dhanbad’s “mature and illustrious research capabilities and Capgemini’s deep focus around industry-oriented techno-functional business models,” the project will definitely be able to “deliver innovative cross-sectoral solutions to help our clients get the future they want.”

Capgemini hopes to develop synergies with premier academic and research institutions in India and tap into the collective power of outside-in innovations, co-creating solutions for real-world business challenges, and at the same time helping academia connect with contextual business requirements, while enhancing industry knowledge in their student community.

Prof. Rajiv Shekhar, director, IIT (ISM) Dhanbad, is sure that the collaboration will ”expose our students to state-of-the-art AI, IOT and other technologies.” Capgemini will also support the IIT (ISM) Dhanbad faculty “to integrate real-life case studies of the implementation of intelligent industry technologies in the academic curriculum.”

Capgemini is keen to instil an innovative mindset in students through industry exposure, and provide them with deep technical expertise to make them future ready. The students of IIT (ISM) Dhanbad working on this project are presently a part of Capgemini’s internship programme.

The post Capgemini ties up with IIT (ISM) Dhanbad for business innovation appeared first on HR Katha.

The placement drive witnessed participation from 150 companies.

Most of the eligible students received offer letters, indicating that the pandemic has not really affected recruitments. While the average package was Rs 8 lakh per annum last year, it has gone up to Rs 10.5 lakh per annum this year. More than 19 students managed to bag a salary package of Rs 27 lakh per annum. The polymer science branch of the Institute witnessed 100 per cent placement.

Meanwhile, Chandigarh University reported a successful placement drive with over 5,000 students receiving job offers. Over 500 multinational companies held virtual campus placement drives for the students of engineering, MBA, hotel management, pharmacy, biotechnology, architecture and other programmes. Compared to last year, girl students accounted for over 38 per cent of the offers. The placement process for the 2021 batch began in July 2020, and by October 2020, more than 150 companies had already completed their recruitment processes and made over 1000 job offers.

At IIM Udaipur, there has been 100 per cent placement for the one-year MBA in global supply chain management batch of 2020-21. The average CTC offered was Rs 19.27 lakh per annum, with the highest package touching Rs 34.98 lakhs per annum.

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Sabre makes use of the bootcamp to welcome and engage prospective employees from various campuses. This initiative helps them learn about the brand and be active ambassadors right from the beginning. Only after this step are these interns assigned projects within the Company. This initiative aims to facilitate a smooth ‘campus-to-corporate’ transitioning of the interns.

Surinder Bhagat, India people leader, Sabre Bengaluru GCC, says, “Most companies imagine having the best students on board and evolve leaders for tomorrow. This is a common trend, but to bring out a leader from amongst the students, it is essential to look at how they are made to enter the stream.”

“Most companies imagine having the best students on board and evolve leaders for tomorrow. This is a common trend, but to bring out a leader from amongst the students, it is essential to look at how they are made to enter the stream.”

Surinder Bhagat, India people leader, Sabre Bengaluru GCC

A total of 59 students have been hired, who all have been offered a six-month internship. Last year, Sabre absorbed 100 per cent of the interns into the Company for permanent positions, and is pursuing a similar goal this year too.

Bhagat adds, “When candidates join an organisation directly from the campus, several thoughts occupy their mind, out of which one is definitely the doubt whether their skills are enough to fit into the corporate culture. Other than this, they also worry about their behavioural skills. So, we have received testimonials on how these interns feel and how they wish to see themselves. This helps us decide on ways to deal with and retain the right talents in the company.”

After recruitment, the interns were divided in groups for a hackathon, which gave them the opportunity to give shape to their innovative ideas.

Bhagat says, “We motivate the interns to communicate about how they are feeling within the Company and their communication attitude should represent the culture of the Company. That makes them ambassadors.”

As per a post-event, survey 72 per cent of the participants were satisfied, while 91 per cent showed willingness to recommend the Company to others. The Sabre management finds this to be an interesting way to allow new recruits to indulge in extensive learning with proper guidance from their mentors. For the first time, Sabre held the event virtually this year.

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The top quartile average stipend and the highest stipend offered were Rs 99,207 and Rs 1,70,000, respectively. The students were given opportunities in all areas of management, including marketing, finance, operations, business analytics, HR, and general management. The entire process was held virtually, as has been the case at most MBA institutes this year, owing to the pandemic.

More than 100 recruiters participated in the summer internship hiring process, which is again an overwhelming 100 per cent year-on-year increase in the number of participants. There were at least 80 new recruiters this time, amongst whom were big names including Adobe, Shoppers Stop, Jio Creative Labs, Crompton Greaves, Kotak Mahindra, Dalmia Group, Indian Oil, Haldiram’s, Capital Food and Akshay Patra. Amongst the previous recruiters, were Cipla, HPCL, ICICI Lombard, V-Guard, RBI and Xiaomi.

Quite recently, IIM Amritsar, was in the news when its student, Jashvanth Naidu Pogiri, received the National Youth Icon Award for 2020 given annually by the International Youth Committee (IYC), a United Nations accredited organisation, at the World Youth Summit. He was recognised for his project on sustainable market revival of Ponduru Khadi, a heritage handloom from the Ponduru village of Andhra Pradesh.

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maximum offers came from consulting firms which accounted for 165 of the total offers made. Accenture made 45 offers followed by Bain and Company with 24 offers. Other big names that participated included McKinsey which made 18 offers, Boston Consulting Group, which offered 13 jobs, followed by nine from Kearney,10 from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), six from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), four each from Alvarez and Marsal, Arthur D. Little, and IBM Consulting, and two from EY.

About 78 jobs were offered in the information technology sector and 67 in the finance space. About 50 marketing and sales jobs were offered and 47 positions in leadership and general management were up for grabs. American Express made 10 offers for analytics jobs, while EXL and Target Corporation made two in the same domain. Genpact, Natwest Group and WNS Global Services offered operational roles.

Last month, at XLRI witnessed 100 per cent placement, with maximum offers coming from consulting, sales & marketing and BFSI sectors. This year, the placements were held virtually at XLRI too, and about 108 companies participated. While consulting firms made 29 per cent of the offers, 16 per cent offers came from sales and marketing and 14 per cent from the BFSI sector.

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The placement drive, which was conducted virtually this year, witnessed participation by 108 recruiters, who made 370 domestic and international offers. About 33.3 per cent students received pre-placement offers.

Fr P Christie SJ, director, XLRI – Xavier School of Management is proud of the 100 per cent placement, which he feels is a great achievement considering the uncertainties induced by the pandemic. He considers this “an affirmation by the corporate world of the highly relevant management-centric education we strive to deliver to our students year after year.” He called this success a “testimony to our students’ resilient calibre in navigating the industry’s shifting trends and their future journey as young business leaders of tomorrow.”

The medial salary offered was Rs 23 lakhs per year, with the top 10th and 25th percentile average being Rs 37.49 and Rs 34.80 lakhs per annum, respectively. There was a hike in the average salary from Rs 24.30 lakh to Rs 25.08 lakh. The highest domestic offers were made at over Rs 50 lakh per year from the BFSI sector. Twenty-three new recruiters participated this year.

Maximum hiring happened in the consulting, sales & marketing and BFSI sectors. Amongst the regular participants were big names, such as Accenture, Amazon, Boston Consulting Group, Bain and Co., PricewaterhouseCoopers, ITC, Aditya Birla Group, Nestle, Standard Chartered, Capgemini ELITE, and Hindustan Unilever.

Mastercard, DE Shaw, Airbnb, DBS Bank, Nykaa, Freshworks, ZS Associates, Tata Electronics, ProgCap, Rebel Foods, IDFC Bank, are amongst the new final recruiters. Power Finance Corporation and GAIL were among the PSUs that were part of the final recruitment process.

While consulting firms made 29 per cent of the offers, 16 per cent offers came from sales and marketing and 14 per cent from the BFSI sector.

Some of the recruiters in the finance space were Goldman Sachs, J.P Morgan Chase, NIIF, Citibank, Standard Chartered, Kotak Mahindra Bank, ICICI and Edelweiss, and others. The roles offered in this domain were front-end investment banking, asset management, portfolio management, global and corporate banking, wealth management, global markets, equity research, and retail banking.

Roles in general management were offered by conglomerates, such as TAS, Aditya Birla Group, Mahindra, Capgemini ELITE, Reliance Industries, Xiaomi, RPG and ACT.

Companies from the ITES, e-commerce and online services that participated included, Microsoft, Amazon, PayTM, PhonePe, Myntra, Ola, Media.net, Flipkart, Udaan, AirBnB, HCL, TCS and EXL, and others. Even edtech firms, such as Byju’s, Unacademy, and VMock visited the campus for final placements.

Prestigious roles including that of chief talent officer, were offered by Graphene Health Tech.

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Praveer Priyadarshi, HR leader

However, in India, the role of grades becomes significant when it comes to campus hiring. As Ashish Pinto, senior HR professional, explains, “Academic grades act as the basic parameter to select twenty candidates out of a batch of 200 students, while hiring from the campus. In fact, which students are to be interviewed by which company, is finalised by the colleges on the basis of grades acquired.”

On the contrary, agreeing to the fact that grades do not justify competence, Pinto adds, “After the first round of filtration is done, what we look for is competence. Employers may use different methodologies to check whether the candidate fits the functional area or not. In the interview round, the questions become analytical. The interviewer may ask questions based on situations, which an employee may come across but not a student. However, while interviewing a candidate passing out of a reputed institution, employers expect answers that are relevant to some extent.”

Unmesh Pawar, partner, KPMG

Comparing the situation with that of the lateral hiring process, Pinto enumerates, “During lateral hiring, academic track record may play a role only when a number of similar resumes are received. In that case, the academic history becomes a point of judgment to figure out the probable grooming that a person may have gone through or require. However, priority is always given to the competent people. It is important for the employers to know whether a person will be able to handle the role that he/she is being hired for, and that competency comes from experience and some other factors, such as leadership skills, communication skills and quick learning ability among others.”

However, some experts believe that judgment should be on the basis of a blended approach. The balance between academics and handling of job function helps employers judge the consistency of a person. Praveer Priyadarshi, former chief people officer, Jindal Steel and Power, explains, “While hiring from the campus, we need to have a blended approach. Grades may not be the determinant of competencies, but grades since the first semester help understand the consistency of a person, which is an important criterion. However, only good grades with no skills are no good”.

While explaining the process of campus hiring, Priyadarshi further adds, “Grades are just the preliminary parameters for filtering the desired candidates from a batch. We also give them aptitude tests to judge the other required skills. Although academic performance is judged when multiple CVs are scanned in the lateral hiring process, the relevant skills are paid more importance. We see the experience that a person may bring to the table, along with an understanding of the job function and the ability to handle the same.”

Even though the deciding factor for the long run is the competency of a person, when it comes to campus hiring, the role of grades cannot be ignored. What can be concluded from the statements of Pinto and Priyadarshi is that grades help employers judge the intellect of a person and decide to what extent the interviewee can be driven, to bring out the keys of the job function. However, this is only the preliminary stage of the hiring process. For the subsequent rounds, the employers rely on different methodologies to judge the competencies of a candidate, as required to meet the demands of the function that he/she is being hired for. This shows that even reputed institutions are successful only when they can produce students with the right calibre needed for specific functions.

In fact, there have been instances of college dropouts ending up being big players, such as Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Paul Allen and many others. Commenting on this, Unmesh Pawar, partner, head – people performance and culture, KPMG, expresses a contradictory view. According to Pawar, “Many dropouts make it big at the end, but they choose to drop out to follow their passion. So, that is yet another aspect of judgment.”

Ashish Pinto, senior HR professional 

Stressing on the importance of grades, he further adds, “There are various ways of looking at the process. It is just not about cut-off marks. An academic session comprises several assignments, projects, case studies, and so on. The grades acquired by a student do not only reflect his theoretical knowledge, but also some of his management skills. Therefore, grades are important in judging the competencies of a candidate during campus hiring. However, in the process of lateral hiring, priority is given to the background of a person as a whole. Employers believe that A-listed alumni possess good grooming. However, there has been a remarkable shift in focus of recruiters, in terms of the choice of campus to hire from. A-listed employers are now opening up their campus hiring cells at institutions of various grades”

Clearly, recruiters have varying views and opinions on the role of grades in campus hiring, but the statements of our experts also support the fact that what matters in the long run is competency. Therefore, ideally, a blend of the two may be a catalyst for future growth.

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Despite the pandemic and resultant economic slump, the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Calcutta, has yet again managed to procure 100 per cent summer internship placements for the class of 2022.

The summer internship placement process took place virtually with 473 students and 139 corporates participating from their homes.

This year, there were 43 new employers. While 40 per cent of the internship offers came from the consulting, finance and BFSI sector, 32 per cent came from the general management, sales and marketing space.

The rest of the internship offers came from operations, product management, e-commerce and startups.

The top employers were Accenture and Microsoft.

The placements were divided into three categories. The first one consisted of 35 firms from the private equity, investments, venture capital and management consulting space. 180 students were given offers in this category, some of them at international locations, with Accenture making the maximum offers,that is, 21.

About 60 companies made up the second category of conglomerates, software services, FMCG, consumer services, e-commerce, and consumer durables. About 171 students got placed in this cluster, with maximum offers — 11 — from Microsoft. About 122 students received offers from 44 companies that made up the third group, which covered BFSI, advertising, consulting services, power and utilities, hospitality, manufacturing, food aggregators, and start-up units. 122 students got placed in this cluster

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After over 25 years of successful contribution to the world of academics and becoming an AACSB accredited and globally-ranked institution, Sanjay Padode, present chairman and trustee/promoter of JAGSOM, feels “it is time to cut the umbilical cord and give more wind under its wings by professionalising the governance of the Institution.” Padode has given up his position as chairman of the Board so that the Institution can be pushed forward on its globalisation journey.

Globally known for his scholarly contributions in marketing, competitive strategy, and geopolitical analysis, Prof. Sheth is Charles H. Kellstadt Professor of Business in the Goizueta Business School at Emory University. He has more than 50 years of combined experience in teaching and research at the University of Southern California, the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Columbia University, MIT, and Emory University.

Sheth has also been advisor to numerous companies, including Whirlpool, Motorola, AT&T, WIPRO, Aditya Birla Group, E&Y, Hughes Corporation, and others. He has published numerous books and award-winning articles. Professor Sheth has been advisor to the Government of Singapore in repositioning the nation for the future. He has also been the policy advisor to the US Government about the future of the telecommunications industry.

His achievements were recognised by the Government of India, by presenting him the prestigious Padma Bhushan Award this year.

In 2018, IFIM B-School, became the 6th B-school in India to be accredited by AACSB International. Recently, it was was ranked by QS Masters in Marketing Ranking 2021 amongst the Top 100 such programmes (in 51-100 band) in the world for its PGDM marketing programme.

Atish Chattopadhyay, director, JAGSOM, highlighted the fact that this is “the first time that an Indian management institution is being re-named to honour a globally-renowned scholar” and made the shift from being “an owner-driven institution to an academic-driven institution”. The rebranding will “result in higher visibility in the global arena”.

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Biplob Banerjee, chief people officer, ABD, and Ghananeel Kelkar, general manager-HR, Mercedes Benz, give HR Katha a glimpse of campus hiring in a post-COVID world and what’s changed about how recruiters will now assess candidates.

Upskill and upgrade

If you’re aspiring to land a job at a leading multinational company, once campus placement resumes, you had better have upskilled already. If you have not yet, itis time to pull up your socks. How you have utilised the limbo of 2020 is perhaps the primary criteria recruiters are looking to assess.

“COVID-19 gave everybody a huge opportunity to upskill and upgrade themselves,” notes Banerjee, “so how you’ve utilised this time and overcome the challenge are going to be huge assessment areas rather than just academic factors.”

Make sure you do not lament the lack of opportunities during the lockdown, because recruiters are having none of that. “They need to justify the value-add they introduced to their career despite the circumstances this year,” says Kelkar, who believes the year offered job aspirants the ideal opportunity to rework their skill sets. “It has entirely opened up the conversation about what skills one needs to build.”

“In the absence of in-person interaction, the selection committee does not have a holistic view of the candidates and their body language.”

Fast-thinking future leaders

It is no longer limited to a glowing mark sheet. Grilling candidates is set to go beyond evaluating academic and functional performance. “What kind of future leaders companies will look for has perhaps changed a little,” notes Banerjee. “It’s not just about academic performance or conventional high potential any more,” he points out.

Organisations will seek future leaders in candidates who rose to the occasion and braved the year’s challenges. Therefore, getting an insight into how they navigated these is one of the top agendas for recruiters. “It’ll help to analyse their personality and problem-solving skills. I foresee more of personal questions,” says Kelkar.

“Also, since it will not be an in-person interaction, the selection committee does not have a holistic view of the candidates and their body language,” adds Kelkar, “so they will make an extra effort by way of grilling on various personality aspects.”

Virtual quotient

With most of the world, including organisations, continuing to operate virtually in the near future, the candidate’s virtual compatibility will be put to test as well. Working with colleagues in the same office is one thing and operating remotely using digital tools is a whole other beast.

“The ability to show empathy and collaborate virtually needs a lot more refined skill sets,” says Banerjee, “so recruiters will be assessing how candidates, as leaders, can leverage this whole digital world.”

Tackling the unpredictable

Candidates who were looking to be placed this year but missed the opportunity, shouldn’t be disheartened. Recruiters are also keeping a hawk’s eye on how you took this setback in your stride and continued moving forward.

“Earlier, students only had a plan A or plan B. Now, they have to be ready with a plan C, D, E and F!” says Banerjee. This year has given new meaning to uncertainty. “Nothing can be taken for granted,” continues Banerjee. “Now, it’s all about performance orientation and students should be ready to take up new leadership roles.”

“It’s not just about academic performance or conventional high potential any more. recruiters ASSES how candidates, as leaders, can leverage this whole digital world”

Nailing video interviews

What candidates have to worry about most is “making an impact on a 4×4 inch screen,” points out Banerjee, “which is very different from the touch and feel of a face-to-face assessment”. “Whether the interview is happening on a laptop or mobile, they have to come across as future leaders. That is most important,” he adds.

A majority of our interactions may have been over video this year, but everyone is not comfortable with video communication yet. “Social interaction over video is different. However, when you’re facing an interview, there’s a lot at stake and it becomes a bit challenging,” says Kelkar.

“Candidates may be at a disadvantage because they may feel limited in expressing their personality on video,” he adds, and suggests working on your virtual presence.

Checklist for the perfect video interview

For a flawless virtual campus placement, Kelkar advises candidates to keep basic hygiene factors in mind. These may appear simple, but “can become one of the points that go against the candidate,” he adds.

– Ensure the best connectivity

– No distracting noises in the background

– Consider where you will set up the laptop

– Ensure an appropriate outfit and appearance

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The first phase of the placement drive began in December 2019, which saw 130 students getting job offers. The second phase, which was to begin in January, slowed down due to the pandemic. About 13 offers made to students in the first phase got delayed or withdrawn. However, the second phase was held despite the pandemic-related restrictions. Of the 554 students registered with the College’s placement cell, over 225 undergraduate students received offers from about 120 employers. The entire process was digitalised.

The College is working on a virtual portal for the placement drive for the year 2020-21, and is looking forward to increased participation by big names, including McKinsey and Kearney, and FTI Consulting.

As of now, about 516 students have registered with the placement cell from the 2021 batch.

However, overall, Delhi University does seem to have been hit by the pandemic, with alterations in the exam pattern, delay in exams and the restrictions on holding large-scale tests for recruitments. The university’s central placement cell managed to place only about 138 students this year, as compared to the more than 1,160 students it placed last year. At Lady Shri Ram College for Women, the highest package was Rs 30 lakh per annum this year, whereas last year it was Rs 37.8 lakh, while the average package was ?9.4 lakh per annum.

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Now, as per the state cabinet’s decision on September 7, out of the 17 new castes, 13 will be included in Group A of the OBC list, while four will be included in the Group D category. Henceforth, people belonging to these castes will enjoy the benefits offered by the state government under the reservation quota.

Addapuvaru, Bhagavatula, Bail Kammara/Chigadi/Gadia Lohar, Eenuti/Yenati, Ganjikoti/Ganjikooti, Goud Jetti, Kaki Pagadala, Patamvaru,/Masailhlu, OAD/OD/ODD, Sonnail/Sonnayollu, Sri Kashitriya Ramajogi/Ramajogi, Dheracheerali/Telsuri/Telsoori and Tolubommalata Varu/Boppla, are the new castes that will be included in Group A.

Under Group D, the castes Aheer/Aheeryalu, Govili/Govill/Gouli, Kullakadigi/Kullikadigi/Chittem and Taroollu/Soma Vamasa Kshatriya will be added.

These castes, who had never enjoyed any reservation earlier, comprise nomads and semi-nomads and are considered to be the most backward classes (MBC).

Last year, the Telangana OBC Commission had submitted a report following a detailed study that lasted over two years, about the sociological conditions of the MBC. The Commission had concluded that 17 castes could do with reservations.

Almost 10,000 families will benefit from this inclusion.

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The maximum earning potential (MEP) figured at INR 81 lakhs, which is a 35 per cent jump from last year. Out of the 120 offers made, maximum were bagged for the IT industry by a large margin, compared to other sectors. Companies in the IT sector made 42 offers followed by online services that made 14 offers out of the total. The highest MEP has been considered for strategic function followed by marketing and sales at INR 80 lakhs.

The minimum earning potential for a candidate rested at INR 18 lakhs, which is an increase of one lakh from last year. Most of the offers came from the National Capital Region (NCR) followed by Bangalore.

One possible outcome of the present condition is the lack of international offers. Since 2015, the highest number of international offers were made in 2018 with five out of 94 offers made by companies in the Middle East and Europe. Last year, there was only one international offer from Europe.

Looking at the figures sector wise, it is seen that pharmaceutical, IT and online services present the highest earning potential for candidates, with online services at the top figuring at INR 71 lakhs. While IT made the maximum offers, it ranked third at INR 50 lakhs when considering maximum earning potential.

The report cites the maximum earning potential of candidates, which is the sum of the total guaranteed cash component, highest possible linked variable pay and all other components of salary, such as long-term compensation, gratuity and other benefits.

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As per the arrangement between the two organisations, IBM will curate online courses from Open P-TECH platform and offer it to users via NSDC’s eSkill India portal.

IBM’s Open P-TECH, a free digital education platform, was launched in India in March 2020 and is focused on emerging technologies and professional development skills. On the other hand, eSkill India, is a digital skilling initiative from NSDC that aggregates digital learning resources through various Indian and global knowledge partnerships, to enable access to best-in-class learning resources for India’s youth.

These online courses will focus on emerging technologies, such as cyber security, blockchain, artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud, internet of things, as well as professional- development skills such as design thinking. Offered free of cost, these courses are expected to give a boost to the career of youngsters in the 18 to 22 age range.

As a knowledge partner, IBM will offer 30+ Open P-TECH courses with 60+ hours of learning. Currently, over 16 lakh minutes of digital courses and content on transforming the digital world are available across various sectors in multiple languages, providing learners with the necessary technology and skills.

Open P-TECH platform will also offer courses to develop 11 key skills, such as soft skills, interpersonal skills, and problem solving, as these are not available in any regular college curriculum, but are high in demand and valued in the job market.

Although the courses are available only in English currently, the platform will soon be available in various other Indian languages, such as Hindi, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Punjabi, Gujarati, Sindhi, Urdu and Bengali.

The platform equips learners and educators with foundational technology competencies, along with workplace learning skills.

After the successful completion of these courses, students will be able to share these digital badges on their online resumes.

Manish Kumar, MD and CEO, NSDC, in an official communique, emphasised the importance of leveraging the power of technology to reach out to the youth with scale and quality. He believes that digital platforms such as Open P-TECH and eSkill India can help overcome all barriers, geographic or socio-economic, and make content available to the needy. Digital learning is the best way to ensure more participation of women in the labour force as these courses will make them more employable. It is also the ideal way to give the youth more opportunities of employment.

Sandip Patel, managing director, IBM India/South Asia, rightly points out that Open P-TECH will make it possible for the youth of the country to access foundational learning in emerging technologies and professional skills. Also, the initiative will only take forward the SkillIndia mission, to help the next generation of professionals become future ready.

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The induction was held for the incoming tenth batch of the post graduate programme in management (PGPM), the eight batch of the fellow programme in management and the first batch of PGPM-HR, the classes for which began on August 10.

Bhimaraya Metri, director, IIM-Tiruchi, in his address, highlighted the importance of HR in today’s context, and stated that professionals and students need to develop their people-management skills to keep up with the demand of the times. Emphasising on the need for HR in today’s world, he went on to mention that it was important for the institution to begin a course for the same.

Gauthami Tadimalla, actor and founder, Life Again foundation, was the chief guest, and spoke on the importance of HR management while Pushp Joshi, director-HR, HPCL, highlighted the importance of learning and development, especially experiential learning to stay relevant.

Also present during the programme were Upam Pushpak Makhecha, chairperson, PGPM – HR, Sivakumar S, chairperson-PGPM and Sujeet Kumar Sharma, chairperson, Fellow Programme and Research.

Metri mentioned that they would continue with online classes until normalcy returns. IIM-Tiruchi had already commenced with its executive MBA classes in May.

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Established with support from industry and academia, MEC’s course curriculum is equipped to ensure that the students emerge as industry-ready engineers with ace-quality engineering education.

Keeping in mind how the pandemic has led to the cancellation and rescheduling of JEE Mains, SAT and other exams, MEC has included the Boards results in the eligibility criteria to ensure that eligible students are able to apply without any worry.

Students who have qualified the JEE Main examination and are eligible for the JEE Advanced 2020 will be able to apply. Those who have valid SAT subject test scores or SAT scores or ACT scores or Class 10+2 exams result (with 80 per cent or equivalent grade cumulatively in mathematics, physics and chemistry Subjects in 10+2 from any statutory board) are also eligible.

A total of 400 seats are available in the BTech programme in seven academic disciplines — computer science & engineering, electrical & electronics engineering, mechanical engineering, civil engineering, artificial intelligence, electronics & computer engineering, and computation & mathematics.

The undergraduate programmes in engineering are interdisciplinary in nature and aim to ensure that students are able to adapt to global engineering challenges and prove to be assets to modern multinational organisations.

With its academic partnerships with global institutions — including Babson College and University of Florida, US, as well as Centrale Supelec and Groupe des Ecoles Centrale, France — it offers meaningful internships and semester exchange.

Established in 2014, MEC became part of the Mahindra University w.e.f. 2020-21.

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The mission of MU is to develop multi-skilled leaders capable of reflection, innovation, and a commitment to inclusive and sustainable progress.

In order to bring about a change in the higher education space, the University will drive interdisciplinary academic courses, which will include the study of science and technology, along with humanities, ethics and philosophy, and design.

The contemporary curriculum was developed keeping in mind emerging technologies, such as data science, blockchain and data analytics. The plan is to enable students to develop holistically, combining the emotional intelligence (right brain) and artificial intelligence (left brain) paradigms.

Along with studies, encouragement will also be given to extra-curricular activities, such as sports and music, which will help revolutionise higher education for Millennials and help build a hyper-skilled, future-ready talent pool.

According to Anand Mahindra, chairman, Mahindra Group and chancellor, Mahindra University, high-quality education can transform not just individuals, but also nations.

In line with this belief, Mahindra University will focus on delivering balanced education, which will be a blend of the latest technology and liberal arts. It will help nurture next- generation leaders possessing a holistic world view.

Occupying 130 acres, the multi-disciplinary campus in Hyderabad will offer undergraduate, post graduate and PhD courses.

The University has been launched at a time when the education landscape is evolving and there is a need for a dynamic and empowering approach to education, which beyond business and is at par with the technological demands of the industry globally.

Around 4,000 students and over 300 faculty members are estimated to be in place across the various schools at Mahindra University over the next five years.

The University will also launch the School of Management, School of Law, Indira Mahindra School of Education, School of Media & Liberal Arts, and School of Design in the next four to five years.

The Minerva Fund will offer a scholarship programme, which will ensure that deserving students are given the required support, irrespective of their locations and have access to ace-quality education.

Already equipped with a Supercomputer Lab and an advanced NVidia GPU-based supercomputer, the DGX-1, MU also has one Centre for Artificial Intelligence (CAI), for Innovation & Entrepreneurship (CIE) and a Centre for Sustainable Infrastructure and Systems (CSIS).

Part of the Mahindra Educational Institutions (MEI), MU is a not-for-profit subsidiary of Tech Mahindra.

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