Hyderabad, Dec 23 (IANS): After completion of the first phase of campus placements, and waiting for the second phase to begin, the mood at Indian Institute of Technology, Hyderabad (IIT-H), is definitely upbeat. Despite the uncertainties of a world that is yet to come to terms with the Covid pandemic, the relatively young premier technology institute, garnered its highest placements tally since its inception in 2008.

In the first phase of campus placements that were held in the first week of December, IIT-H witnessed 466 offers, including 34 international offers, made from 104 companies. The recruiters that made a beeline for IIT-H this year include Flipkart, Indeed, Infurnia, JP Morgan, Meesho, Microsoft NTT AT, Newzera, Silicon Labs, Suzuki Motor Corp, TSMC, and Zomato.

Compensation packages making the rounds in the first phase ranged from an average of Rs 23 lakh, to this year's highest annual package of Rs 65 lakh.

While around 650 students have registered for placements across departments in 2021-22, a total of 210 companies have registered for participating in the campus placements. In comparison, only 195 companies had registered for the whole of 2020-21.

Expressing delight on their best placements season so far, Prof. BS Murty, Director, IIT-Hyderabad, said: "We believe in creating industry-ready talent pool and I am confident that the measures being taken for the past one year will certainly fetch the appropriate dream jobs for the students. The various initiatives taken in the last two years like Semester-long Internship for B.Tech, Interdisciplinary M.Tech, industry lectures, industry-defined M.Tech projects and so on, have started yielding results and we will continuously improvise on it."

The first graduating batch of interdisciplinary M.Tech programmes like M.Tech in Smart Mobility has seen a 100 per cent placement in the first phase of the placement process. Several India-based startups and companies are among the top recruiters this year, with as many as 10 start-ups making 36 offers this year.

Prof. C Krishna Mohan, Dean (Public & Corporate Relations) said: "We have revamped the placement office at IIT-Hyderabad to Office of Career Services two years back with the sole objective to take care of overall career development of the students including the counselling to decide the appropriate career. A targeted goal is conducive to achieving, as evident from this year's placements."

In view of the circumstances brought about by the pandemic, the entire process was held online with students attending job interviews from their respective homes across the country.

Dr. Abhinav Kumar, Faculty In-Charge (Office of Career Services), said: "The OCS student team has been working hard supported continuously by our OCS staff. Even during these pandemic times, we are glad to see the placement season at IIT-H has started on a positive note."

A positive trend was evident in the case of international offers also, this year.

Compared to 30 offers from 8 companies in 2020-21, during the current placement year, 34 international offers have already been received from seven companies across 2 countries, namely Japan and Taiwan. More international offers are expected in phase-2 which begins in January 2022. As a relatively new institution, IIT-H has been looking at ways and means of standing out of the crowd.

"Each IIT is uniquely placed in terms of its industry interactions and placements. For example, IIT-H has a unique relationship of research, collaboration and career opportunities with Japan. This relationship is further strengthened with an increasing number of Japanese companies regularly visiting the IIT-H campus for internship and placements. One of its kind Japan Day, organised by IIT-H is a unique testament to this bond. Of the 34 international offers received in phase 1, the majority are from Japan," Dr. Abhinav Kumar elaborated.

One of the eight new IITs established by the Central government in 2008, IIT-H has emerged as a leading academic institution with a strong research focus.

It currently has 245 full-time faculty, 3,871 students, around 200 state-of-the-art laboratories, and five research and entrepreneurship.