Not many IIT students are bagging Rs 1 core-plus packages now. Here’s why

Students bagging Rs one crore plus packages has shrunk to its smallest in the past three years in Indian School of technology.

According to NP Padhy, professor-incharge for placements at IIT Roorkee, there are many reasons that led to this. Some of them include a sharp decline in international offers from US firms, a cutback in stock options offered by overseas firms and big companies such as Google choosing to stay away from campus recruitment.

It is being estimated that the number of students who have bagged Rs 1 crore-plus packages - including base salary, ESOPs, joining bonuses and relocation allowance - has fallen 30-40% from last year's levels. In all, students at IIT Madras, Roorkee, BHU, Guwahati and Kharagpur, for instance, received 15 Rs 1 crore plus offers this year, compared to about 27 last year.

"Crore-plus packages in 2014 would have been upwards of 60 across IITs. They are down over 50% since then. When we ask companies now, they say that their international requirements have gone down because of the current economic uncertainty." This is a far cry from the placement season of 2014," Professor Kaustubha Mohanty, head, Centre for Career Development at IIT Guwahati, told ET.

The year was the high point across IIT campuses in terms of Rs 1 crore-plus offers, when international recruiters such as Facebook, Oracle, Google and Microsoft competed with each other to bag talent.

Facebook has stayed away from IIT campuses since 2014. This year, even Google opted out of the traditional placement drive to recruit students directly.

As a result, Uber, Microsoft and Oracle were among the only international recruiters offering Rs 1 crore-plus packages (all inclusive) at IIT campuses this year.

Of them, Microsoft and Oracle cut down on international offers, according to placement officials at IITs.

Uber offered the highest base package of $110,000 for an overseas posting, followed by Microsoft ($106,000) and Oracle ($100,000).

Cost to company among the international offers barely crossed Rs 1.2 crore this year (inclusive of bonuses and stock options), compared to Rs 2 crore-plus in 2014.