Final placements for the batch of 2007 are a week away, but records have already started to tumble at Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIMC).

Students of the postgraduate programme at the Joka B-school have bagged about 90 national and international pre-placement offers, up from 55 last year. The offers were made by companies where the students had interned in summer.

Moreover, at least three of the students, from 251-strong batch, will begin their banking careers as crorepatis. Two of them have been offered positions in the New York office of a leading investment bank with a yearly salary to the tune of $250,000 (more than Rs 1.1 crore). Another student has been offered a £120,000 annual pay cheque (Rs 1.05 crore) for a position at the London office of another prominent investment bank.

“The salaries are the highest offered across B-school campuses in India and are 50 per cent more than the average salaries offered at top international B-schools like Harvard, Stanford and Wharton,” said Sarfaraz Khimani, secretary, external relations cell of IIMC.

The names of the students and the companies are being withheld as per the policy of the B-school.

For IIMC students and professors, the nature of pre-placement offers are more significant than the record-breaking salaries. The three students have been offered the position of an associate, which is on a par with posts offered to graduates from the US B-schools like Harvard.

“Indian B-school graduates are usually offered the position of an analyst. It takes them a couple of years to become an associate,” explained Mahesh Nair, recruitment coordinator, IIMC.

“After two-month stints with companies that have made the pre-placement offers, the students know the people, the job profile and are in a position to make the right decision,” added Nair. The companies, too, get the chance to test the students, which is not possible in an interview.

Lateral placements of the students with work experience, conducted last month, also saw a slew of offers.

Senior roles were offered by Aditya Birla Group, Infosys, Cognizant Technology Solutions and other companies to about 120 students. With firms like McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Bain, Merrill Lynch, Deutsche Bank, UBS, ABN Amro and Barclays slated to recruit from the campus during the final placements, expectations are high. “We are expecting more offers around the crore mark,” stated Nair.