Big companies holds sway in IIM-A placements

Ahmedabad, Nov 28: The recently concluded summer placement at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIM-A) has seen that many emerging sectors were looking towards diversifying their manpower portfolio with a tinge of 'Green'.

Inclusion of big names in consultancy like Price Water HouseCoopers; knowledge banking and agri-consulting firm YES bank in the summer placements of Agri-business Management (ABM) programme points to a greater job diversity for the students.

A total of 17 companies participated in the summer placement process of ABM programme for a batch of 25 students. The new entrants this season were global agri-business giant Louis Dreyfus, Miebach Logistics, consulting major PWC, YES Bank, Glaxo Smith Kline, Fortune 500 company Aditya Birla Group for their retail venture, Britannia, Nandan Biomatrix and Claris Lifesciences Ltd.

The regular recruiters like RPG, Godrej, Marico, ITC, ICICI Bank and ICICI Prudential continued their association this year as well reinforcing their faith in the tremendous value addition to the ABM students who undergo common academic module with the PGP programme for the first year of the study.

''With RPG"s growth story and the retail expansion, we find very valuable talent for the future leadership positions from the students of IIM-A Agri-Business Management,'' said Mr Arvind N Agrawal, president, Corporate Development and HR, RPG Group recently. IIM-A sources said that of late, IIM-A agri-business managers have been pursued by the food retail sector.

The wide array of projects offered to the students ranging from supply chain management to retailing, from agri and food consulting to finance and from market research to strategy formulation has indeed benefitted the students. Students have on an average two offers to choose from.

Professor Piyush Kumar Sinha, Chairperson, Placement Committee of IIM-A, felt that though larger number of companies expressed their keenness to offer summer project with a hike in average stipend, what delighted students was an opportunity to work on high profile live projects. This time the biggest criterion to choose internship project was the nature of the project being offered.

Many students were keen on associating themselves with strategic projects. A student, Subodh Kant who chooses to work with Claris Life Sciences said keeping one's career in view it was better to work on a project that involves practical learning and that offers a bigger role to play.

UNI