 "Cognizant cries foul as TCS hits campuses a week before time")
According to sources at engineering institutes in Tamil Nadu, TCS and some other firms will start recruitment from September 1 this year. And, recruitment at some four or five colleges, including a couple of those in Puducherry, started from August 23-24.
When contacted, a spokesperson for TCS said: "We are doing what we have done in the past."
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An email statement from Cognizant said: "Any company unilaterally violating this guideline sets a bad precedent and creates an unhealthy situation for campuses, as well as the industry. Cognizant is assessing the situation and will do what it takes to remain competitive without losing sight of the best interests of our clients, our business, and the student community at large."
An official from one of the institutions where TCS has already conducted recruitment said it had seen an increase in recruitment from TCS. The official, who did not wish to be named, added product companies were already recruiting from June or July and, given that every company would look at acquiring the best talent, firms could consider recruiting as early as possible.
It was in 2011 that Nasscom had stipulated that Indian IT firms should start campus recruitments only in the final semester, which starts from September. "In the past couple of years, the focus on campus hiring had gone down due to a weak economy. Even now, the total number (of students) being hired by the industry is down," said an industry source.
Nasscom, meanwhile, said it had not seen many firms going against the stipulated advisory. "We reiterate that the guidance was to hire in the seventh semester (starts from September) and companies have adhered to it," said Sangeeta Gupta, senior vice-president, Nasscom.
TCS prefers to have an exclusive day one for its campus recruitment. However, a majority of the Grade-A colleges have moved to a shared-seat model, where the day-one placement is offered to more than one recruiter. The colleges where TCS has already conducted campus recruitments are said to be the company's strongholds that offer it exclusive day-one slots.
"The placement process will be unique this time, as we have five companies for slot one, with TCS also part of the process. Till last year, TCS was not on board and we had only four companies: Wipro, Infosys, Accenture and Cognizant," said Sekar Viswanathan, vice-President, VIT University, Vellore. Until last year, TCS followed a 'no slot sharing' policy. Placements at the university would begin on September 1 and go on till September 15, Viswanathan said.
The university, which has received good feelers, declined to disclose the number of recruitments. Last year, IT companies had made a total of 5,828 offers to students at VIT, with Cognizant making the largest number of offers (1,911).
"Cognizant has consistently abided by the Nasscom guideline that campus recruitment at engineering schools across India be conducted in the final semester of the graduate programme. We are in compliance with that guideline this year as well. We believe the practice is in the best interest of students as it allows them to focus on their studies and gives them additional preparation time for their academic requirements, raising their overall performance benchmark and industry-readiness. The practice is also beneficial for the industry, as it allows companies to make offers closer to the date of joining, based on a better assessment of client demand and business needs," said the statement from Cognizant.