PSUs, core sector companies make a comeback in IITs for final placements

Hiring through PSUs at IITs has been boosted by the Madras HC ruling in favour of PSUs last year allowing them to pick students from campuses

Public sector units (PSUs) are set to make a comeback at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) campuses this final placement season.
 
According to the premier institutes, confirmations from PSUs, especially from core sector have been on the rise, ahead of the final placements process that begins on December 1.
 
For instance, while the Indian Navy and ISRO have already completed interviews at IIT Madras, the likes of ONGC and Coal India have confirmed participation and likely to come soon for campus placements. Among the core sectors, oil marketing companies (OMCs) like IOCL, BPCL and HPCL and heavy engineering firms like BHEL are likely to visit IIT campuses too.
 
According to placement officials of various IITs, hiring through PSUs at IITs has been boosted by the Madras High Court ruling in favour of PSUs last year allowing them to pick students from campuses. Also, barring computer science, students from other streams are witnessing a growing inkling towards PSUs, especially in oil and gas and heavy machinery sectors. Most of the IITs Business Standard spoke to refused to divulge further details on names of recruiters in these sectors.
 
"We have established contact with several PSUs who have responded well and we have had core sectors show interest too. Two of them have already completed placements while others are expected to come soon," V Babu, Advisor for Training & Placements at IIT Madras told Business Standard.
 
Since not all PSUs follow the same recruiting pattern as the private sector recruiters, IITs have urged the former to visit during the placement season that begins in December for hiring on-campus. "The PSUs may come in their own time of hiring though we requested them to maintain our placement time of December. The regular PSU recruiters will, however, be coming in December," said Debasis Deb, chairman of IIT Kharagpur's Career Development Centre.
 
Moreover, IITs have also upped the ante by recruiting more number of PSUs and core sector companies as against last year. "We are reaching out to more number of PSUs this year," said Shyam Nair, chairman - students placement office at IIT Kanpur, while refusing to divulge further details.
 
Followed by core sector and PSUs, confirmations from analytics and consulting too have seen increase over last year at IITs. "We have seen an increase in confirmations from the core sector. We have also seen an increase in number of business analytics firms coming for placements this season," Deb added.
 
Following the blacklisting of 31 statups, IITs had consciously decided this year on shifting their focus to other sectors, including PSUs and core sectors, which seems to be reaping results now.
 
"We are hopeful that PSUs will come a bit early this year. It will be a win-win situation for anybody. This time we are requesting them to come a bit early. PSUs hire in a good number usually and it is almost a dream job for students," said K Mohanty, placement chairperson at IIT Guwahati had told Business Standard earlier.