Sudipto Mondal / The Hindu

Mangalore, Dec 3: As the second most populous country in the world, India has had to deal with surplus labour even at the best of times. But for students passing out of premier institutes, unemployment or under-employment has always been a distant proposition.

That the present economic tempest is different is perhaps best indicated by the fact that the premier institutes in the region are feeling the heat. However, few are willing to come on the record to say it.

Campus placements at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) in Surathkal, T.A. Pai Management Institute (TAPMI) in Manipal and the Manipal Institute of Technology (MIT) have taken a blow.

According to the Chairman of TAPMI Elan Kumaran only 40 companies have evinced interest to come for recruitments this year as opposed to 60 the previous year. “We have to get realistic. We cannot possibly be insulated from what is happening across the world,” he says, adding that the expectation for a “good placement season” is on the wane.

He also says that companies had by this time last year already indicated how many students they intended to hire out of fear that the job seekers would go elsewhere. With just over a week to go before the start of the actual placement interviews, the institute still does not know how many students each company want to hire.

Placement authorities at NITK are vehement in their denial of a crisis. But students and staff members reveal other facts. Professor of the Department of Metallurgy Rajendra Udupa says that while over half-a-dozen steel companies came for placement the previous year, only Jindal Steel and Power Ltd turned up this year. “They hired only two students,” he reveals.

A student said a company had given him an intent letter but had gone back on appointing him without giving any explanation.