The Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) is relieved now that its outgoing post-graduate programme (PGP) batch of 242 students has secured jobs at an extended campus placement.

'We are relieved that all our students were able to land jobs despite tough market conditions and the fear that the global meltdown would affect it adversely,' IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra told reporters here Tuesday.

Of the 249 grads, seven opted out of the placement process, which concluded Monday, for pursuing their entrepreneurial dreams. About 20 percent of the graduating batch are women - the highest figure across the state-run IIMs in the country.

Unlike in the boom times, the recruitment process began on a sedate note when only 64 grads were hired on the first day, Feb 27, termed as slot zero, as against 133 in 2008. About 40 percent of women grads were placed in slot zero.

Of the remaining 178 grads, 98 got offers on the second day ('slot one') and the balance 80 on the second day and third day ('slots two and three') spread over nine days.

In all, 97 overseas and Indian firms, including seven state-run public sector enterprises (PSEs) came calling to offer placements as against 64 companies in 2008. Among the PSEs were GAIL, HPCL, BPCL and SEBI.

'We had more companies this time due to less offers from regular firms. In the absence of some reputed international firms like Lehman Brothers and others, we not only invited more companies for placements, but also extended the recruitment process by a week,' IIM-B faculty member (placement) Sourav Mukherji admitted.

The global meltdown and financial crisis in the US also led to a sharp fall in international offers. Only 25 offers were made this time as against 75 in 2008.

'Many grads, however, preferred to work for private equity and consulting firms in India, rejecting lucrative offers from foreign investment banks in light of prevailing economic uncertainty,' Chandra noted.

Sector wise, consulting and banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI) and investment banking accounted for 60 percent of the offers, followed by general management and sales and marketing sectors with 16 percent offers each.

The remaining offers came from IT and education (three percent each) and private equity (two percent).

'Offers from consulting firms remained the same (25 percent) as last year, while it is 28 percent from the BFSI sector and seven percent from investment banking this time. Indian IT bellwethers such as Infosys and Wipro and global IT major IBM made offers in consultancy and business development,' Mukherji said.

At a time when several firms are cutting jobs and freezing recruitment, nine foreign and Indian firms came to the B-school for the first time to hire some of the best and brightest management students.

The first-time recruiters were Booz and amp; Co, Aviva, TVS Capital, Jaypee Capital, HT Media, L'Oreal, Arvin Meritor, Enzen and Bosch.

Similarly, major recruiters such as Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Jaypee Capital, IBM (consulting and finance), Bosch, Cognizant Consulting, IOCL, TAS, Bain and amp; Co, Stanchart and UAE Exchange collectively made 66 offers.

Other recruiters were McKinsey and amp; Co, Arthur D. Little, Deloitte, Accenture and Diamond. International banks such as American Express, Citigroup and HSBC also recruited the B-school grads.

The institute authorities declined to comment on the compensation offered this year, but admitted that some of the high-paying companies had not come this time for the placement.

'The overall picture is quite satisfying. In these very difficult times when several are losing jobs, more firms had come to hire our students, testifying the talent and global standing the institute commanded,' Chandra added.