Ten IITs to kickstart their campus placements on Dec 1

Mumbai: Ten leading IITs, including IIT-Bombay, Delhi and Madras, have agreed to kickstart their campus placements on December 1 – a tradition that has been followed for years. The All IITs’ Placement Committee (AIPC) has decided to stick to the regular schedule so far and most are working towards attaining it.
With a delayed start to the academic session due to the pandemic, a few were apprehensive about starting the campus placement drive from December 1.
“Some of the IITs completed their placement process for the 2019-20 batch as late as July 2020. Usually the process for planning and inviting companies for the new academic session starts by then. But since most of the processes are online this year, including the pre-placement talks (PPTs) and the final interviews, and there is no travelling involved, Phase 1 placement interviews can be started on December 1,” said AIPC convenor, Professor C S Shankar Ram from IIT Madras. “In fact, the PPTs have already commenced,” he added.
An official from the placement cell of IIT-Bombay confirmed that placements would start from December 1 as of now. “The schedule will change only if all IITs decide to postpone it for academic reasons later. If they do, the companies may agree, as the process is online and no travel or venue booking is involved this year,” said the official, adding that a 15-day delay may not have a major impact on the schedule.
At IIT-Kharagpur, the placement work for the 2020-21 batch has not started in full swing, but they intend to start the first phase by December 1. An official from another IIT said that the companies are drawing their recruitment plan now and some are confirming their presence. He added that the pre-placement offers till date has seen an increase if compared with the previous year. Some of the IITs may plan their end-semester exam after the phase-I interviews, said the official.
IITs are divided into two groups this year, only for placement purposes – group-I and group-II. The group-I IITs include the older institutes - IIT-Bombay, Delhi, Madras, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati, Roorkee, IIT (ISM)-Dhanbad, IIT-BHU and IIT-Hyderabad. Group-II includes the newer IITs, however, based on the increase in graduating students, a group-II institute can enter group-I later. Group-II IITs usually start the process before those from Group I. IIT-Hyderabad, one of the newer IITs, for example, moved from Group II to Group-I this year.