In a clear sign that the impact of the slowdown is behind, multinationals flocked to Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B) to offer placements to the entire batch of 348 first year students of the two-year post-graduate programme in management.

'For the first time, niche consulting firms such as Wolff Olins and Global E-Procure came calling to recruit our students for internships in 2010 summer,' IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra told IANS Thursday.

The annual exercise lasted for five days (Nov 6-10), with 180 students snapped up on the first day (slot zero), the largest across all state-run B-schools in the country. Of the 59 women in the batch, 18 were placed in slot zero.

Similarly, for the first time, the US-based global asset management and financial services firm Blackstone Group recruited a summer intern from the prestigious B-school for its Real Estate PE (private equity) London desk.

Global investment banks such as Goldman Sachs, Citi and Standard Chartered recruited the highest number of interns.

Goldman Sachs, which made 13 offers, selected one student for its SSG (special situations group) division.

About 150 firms, including 74 new companies, made a beeline to offer internships in diverse verticals such as pharma, real estate, venture capital, hedge funds and niche consulting joining regular recruiters.

'The mood is certainly upbeat this year, as evident from the return of investment banks, consulting and marketing firms in good numbers,' Chandra said.

International hedge funds like Cowell and Lee and Sabre Capital, coming for the first time, offered intern positions across geographies to students.

Among consulting firms were McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, Booz, AT Kearney, Arthur D Little, Deloitte, KPMG and Alvarez and Marsal.

Bain and Co was the single largest recruiter among the consulting firms, inducting five students in its fold.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Morgan Stanley and JP Morgan were among the multinationals that made summer offers.

'Of the total, 64 students opted to intern for international firms overseas,' IIM-B placement chairperson P.D. Jose said.

International offers continued on the second day (slot one), with global firms such as Lotus Forex, UAE Exchange, Bank Muscat, Bates Pan Gulf making offers for diverse profiles, he added.