BIT boy bags 14.5 lakh offer

Patna, Nov. 14: When the cloud of economic slowdown is hovering over the IT sector, the placement scenario at Birla Institute of Technology (BIT) here has appeared as a silver lining for students as well as other job aspirants. Davesh Kumar, a seventh-semester computer science student from BIT, has bagged a job with Amazon India for Rs 14.5 lakh annual package. This is the highest salary offered to any student of BIT till now. The package, in fact, has taken BIT ahead of National Institute of Technology (NIT) in terms of highest salary offer made so far. Raj Kumar, the placement officer at BIT, said: “This (Davesh’s) is the highest package any student has got since the institute’s establishment in 2006.” Davesh, who hails from Gaya, told The Telegraph: “It is a big achievement for me as I have been offered the highest salary package at BIT, Patna.” For the session ending 2012, BIT has already achieved 75 per cent placements, with a majority of students being placed in IT companies. The total job offers till now is 257. As many as 197 of 263 students have been placed. In fact, 130 students have multiple offers, said Raj Kumar. The rush of IT companies to the BIT campus has pushed even non-computer science students to opt for IT jobs. Sneha Kumar, a final-year student of the mechanical engineering department, has accepted an offer from Tata Technologies for an annual package of Rs 3.5 lakh. “This was the first job offer that came my way and hence, I accepted it,” Sneha told The Telegraph. Sneha and other students like her will have to undergo IT training for the first few months after joining the company. India’s leading IT company Wipro has offered jobs to 72 students in the 2008-2012 batch but the pay package is much below Amazon India. Wipro’s average annual package this year is Rs 3.25 lakh. Other IT companies such as Infosys has made job offers to 51 BIT students till now. Cognizant Technology Solutions has given jobs to 76 students. Kumar said: “The biggest relief for us is that despite the economic slowdown, our students are getting job offers. Even some of the premier colleges in the country are facing problems in getting their students placed.” The economic slowdown, said Kumar, did impact the pay package. “Else, BIT, Patna, students would have been offered much better salary,” he added. In 2010, four students from the first batch passing out of BIT were placed at a salary of Rs 8.5 lakh each. While two students had bagged jobs with Indian Oil, two others had joined National Thermal Power Corporation. Last year, the highest package offered to a BIT, Patna, student was Rs 7.5 lakh, again from the IT sector