Major startups, including Flipkart, Paytm, OlaCabs and Snapdeal among others, will not recruit the talent from this year’s Indian Institutes of Technology campus recruitment drive, the Times of India reported.
"There is a significant decrease in the number of startups that have registered for placement drives this year due to funds crunch and other market issues," placement head N P Padhy told TOI.
"It could be possible that they do not have manpower requirement. It really hasn't been a great year for many startups," said another placement dean.
Earlier this year, the IITs barred 31 firms, including Grofers, baby clothing website Hopscotch, Portea Medical and a host of other startups, from participating in their placement drives. They were blacklisted for a year for "playing with the careers of students" by making last-minute changes to their offers, revoking offer letters, falsely hiring them for affiliates and delaying joining dates.
While many startups have stayed away, several are being screened by placement teams before they are allowed to visit the tech campuses. At IIT-Madras, 54 startups have registered. Last year, 98 were present. At IIT-Bombay, there are fewer startups among companies that have listed to recruit. "We are screening the companies that want to recruit from our campus," said a placement team member of IIT-Kanpur.
The process of empanelling firms wanting to recruit talent from the IIT campuses is open until the end of November.
