With several start-ups having defaulted on their recruitment promises to new recruits from premier business and engineering institutes, the IITs are now mulling changes in their placement policies to ensure that students don't face a repeat of such situations.
The IITs have started closer scrutiny of start-ups and are also insisting on knowing exact joining dates. The colleges are also focusing more on placements in Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs). PSUs have been missing from campus placements for a few years due to a high court order but they are making a comeback this year.
Earlier, six companies were barred from hiring from Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in 2016-17.
Shefali Jindal, a placement co-ordinator at IIT-Delhi, said that the institute will be seeking joining dates on company registration forms itself, according to a Times of India report.
“Though they always gave tentative dates, we are planning to get them in writing,” she was quoted by the newspaper.
Recalling a case on the campus, she said that a student with a loan burden had bagged an offer with a pay package of Rs 12 lakh per annum last year, but was rendered jobless after his offer was revoked.
IIT-Bombay has also intensified the scrutiny process of start-ups this year but still finalising a revamped placement policy.
IIT-Roorkee will have an additional filtering process for start-ups this year.
IIT-Kharagpur has increased its focus on the PSUs but will not bar start-ups from placements as students still show interest in them.
All other top IITs, including IIT-Bombay and IIT-Delhi, will also see several PSUs visiting the campus during the first phase of the placement season this year.
The cautious steps by premium engineering institutes of India are being taken in the light of several cases where start-ups went back on their original promise.
This year, a few start-ups revoked job offers, some deferred their joining dates, and some reduced the salaries offered initially to students from IITs and IIMs.
This started with Flipkart deferring the joining dates of 18 IIM students by six months citing restructuring. The company later tried to make amends by offering a Rs 1.5 lakh joining bonus.
Another start-up InMobi had also deferred joining dates of new recruits to November this year from the earlier promised joining in July.
