Campus placements: IITs revoke year-old ban on 30 companies

The decision was taken at the 23rd AIPC meeting held at IIT Bombay yesterday

The IITs have revoked a ban, which they had imposed on 30 companies, mostly start-ups, barring them from participating in their campus placements. The ban was announced after these firms withdrew their offers made to the students last year.

The decision to revoke the ban was taken yesterday at a meeting of the All-IIT Placement Committee (AIPC), where the members unanimously decided to withdraw it.

They were of the opinion that the placement committee in each of the IITs should consider the track record of a particular company, before inviting it to take part in the campus placements.

"As per the decision was taken at the 23rd AIPC meeting held at IIT Bombay, the ban on the blacklisted companies is hereby revoked with immediate effect," said Kaustubha Mohanty, coordinator of the AIPC.

The AIPC had blacklisted these companies, including healthcare services provider Portea Medical, food-tech company Zomato and online seller of baby-care products Hopscotch, in August 2016, after they withdrew the job offers they had made to the students.

"The ban has been revoked considering the interest of the students. The idea of the ban was to send a strong message to the companies that they cannot take the future of the students for granted," Mohanty, who is also a professor in IIT Guwahati, said.

"Also, the new IITs can benefit if more companies take part in their campus placements. We have advised all the IITs that their placement committees should scrutinise the track record of the companies before inviting them or accepting their offer to come for campus placements," he added.

All the IITs have a one-student-one-job principle, which means if a student gets a job offer during on-campus recruitment, he or she cannot appear for more interviews.

"If the offers are withdrawn, the selected students get into trouble. The IITs have a reputation across the globe. Hence, we cannot let the students suffer for no fault of theirs or the institutes," Mohanty said.