Beating all the fears and proving many pundits wrong, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB) has been able to achieve 100% placement for the students of its Rural Management Programme.

All the 59 students of PG Diploma in Rural Management have been placed in various organization even before their course ends in the mid of March 2009.

Companies like, Deloitte, Monsanto, Tata Teleservices, Shriram Group, Devgen, Mother Dairy, Amul, IMRB, Indian Immunoligicals, were the major corporations which came to campus for recruiting rural managers. XIM-B also remained a favorite hunting ground for some of the major micro-finance and development organisations of the country like, Microsave, Intellecap, Bandhan, Hand in Hand, Pradan, A Little World, and Access Livelihood Consulting. The highest salary offered was Rs. 8.0 Lakh per annum while the average salary was Rs. 4.46 Lakh per annum. More than 30 organizations participated in the process.

“It is some sort of record. When most of the management institutions dealing with sectoral management education are struggling because of unfavorable market conditions, we have been able to do it,” claimed Prof. Niraj Kumar, who is member of Placement Committee and has been successfully handling placement of rural management since last four years. “We have not only been able to keep our traditional recruiters happy with the quality performances by our alumni, but have been able to widen our base by reaching to research based organizations like, IMRB and consulting organizations like, Deloitte,” added Prof. Kumar.

“All of us were keeping our fingers crossed and were not sure of this so early as we were getting discouraging news from different institutions across the country where our friends are studying. However, when we finally made it, we feel happy and proud,” said Shivshankar. V, coordinator of Student Placement Committee.

Udai Krishna, a first year student, said, “This year’s placement was an experience for us as companies were much more quality-conscious and were very selective in the process. Although now we are hopeful for next year too, but we need to work harder to meet the increasing expectations from the recruiters.”

“Yes, we could beat the market because of the consistent performance of our alumni and because of brand XIM-B, but the fact that Orissa has emerged as a preferred investment destination by many corporations and development organizations has also helped us considerably,” said Prof. Saveeta Mohanty, Coordinator, Placement, XIM-B.

It is important to note that the institute has also been able to place all of its first year’s rural management students for their summer internships. There too, new organizations have been added in the list and project profile has widened. So it is double bonanza for the students of rural management.