Japanese firms make a beeline for IIT students

Mumbai: Commerce follows the flag. Japanese Emperor Akihito is visiting India, and several Japanese companies are calling on Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) campuses seeking talent.

Sony Japan, Daikin Manufacturing, Konica Minolta, NEC Japan and Uhuru Software are some of the Japanese majors that visited IIT Bombay (IIT-B)in the first phase of placements. The salary packages offered by the firms are in the range of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 35 lakh.

“We have received very good feedback about our students from Japanese companies. Traditionally, the Japanese culture is more conservative and they feel that Indian students are more adaptable for their foreign operations,” said S.K. Mehta, Assistant Training & Placement Officer, (IIT-B).

This year, IIT-B expects 15 Japanese firms to come calling, significantly more than the five that recruited students last year.

Japanese national broadcaster NHK has filmed the placement process at IIT-B this year and interviewed top recruiters and students. “With increasing awareness, we expect more Japanese firms to visit next year,” said Mehta.

At IIT Kanpur, too, the number of Japanese firms visiting the campus has doubled. Sony Japan and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries are two of the companies that have hired talent in the first phase of placements.

“During the first year, students recruited by the firms will be posted in Japan and then sent on international postings,” said Amit Saraswat, Placement Coordinator at IIT Kanpur.

The placement office at IIT Kanpur has also started a course on Japanese language and culture. The institute also plans to release a placement brochure in Japanese, apart from the one in English.

The first phase of placements, which began on December 1 and ends next week, sees recruiters offering the highest salaries.

At $210,000, Oracle offered the highest salary package at IIT Madras this year, considerably more than the $1,50,000 last year. About 50 companies have visited and six global majors have made 26 offers at IIT Madras.

“Though we haven’t seen a substantial increase in salary packages, we have seen many new recruiters this year. We expected many companies to drop out on visiting the campus, but that did not happen,” said a relieved Damini Gandham, a dual degree student at IIT Madras.