Ajit Joshi (29) has started planning for a life in Muscat. This former consultant with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu who went to IIM Lucknow, has recently landed a job offer of Rs 50 lakh in equity research in Bank of Muscat’s i-banking division.

His is just one of the international offers that IIM-Lucknow’s post-graduate programme students have bagged this placement season. “Things are brighter now. Our seniors had it tough last year,” says Joshi.

IIM-Lucknow, which started its placement process mid-last week, has already bagged 200 offers, with the highest offer of Rs 75 lakh being made by commodity trading company Olam International for a Singapore position. Joshi’s is the second highest offer.

Based on placement offers till date, the institute expects a 25-30% increase in the number of international offers this year. The institute, which had 100 offers for students with work experience, began its final process with 220 students and has received offers for a majority of them.

Some of the new companies on campus this year include Mckinsey, Nomura, Deloitte Consulting, Calyon Bank, France, Siemens Infosystems and Suzlon. Last year, the highest international offer was from Barclays, which picked up a student for Rs 1 crore. “Many i-banks have come back this year, besides several good consulting and IT firms. We will see the average salary go up this time,” says professor RL Raina, chairman, placement, IIM-L.

Deloitte has made the most offers of 20 followed by Cognizant Consulting, with 15. The Kozhikode-based institute is expected to better last season’s domestic salary of Rs 24 lakh. It is also expected to better last year’s highest international offer of Rs 60 lakh. Both the institutes expect to place all students by the end of next week.

IIM Calcutta and IIM Bangalore, which are yet to start their respective process, too talk of an improved job season this year. IIM-C, where placements for experienced professionals (laterals) are currently on, will soon kick off its final placements with around 200 students.

The highest package for the laterals has so far been in the Rs 1 crore-plus region while the highest domestic pay till date is at Rs 58 lakh.

"The packages are generally higher in the final process, compared to the laterals. That’s why we expect much higher packages in the finals," says a person associated with the placement process at IIM-C, who did not wish to be named.