Calcutta, Nov. 15: IIM Calcutta’s decision to throw open placement doors to smaller companies has paid off in the season of financial crisis.

Deviating from the tradition of sticking to blue chip companies, the Indian Institute of Management has for the first time rolled out the red carpet for start-ups, online ventures and micro-credit institutions.

“We know that there is a recession-like situation in the global economy and we had made an effort to democratise the placement process and we are happy with the results,” said Murali Perumalsamy, IIM Calcutta’s recruitment co-ordinator.

There is a buzz that IIM Ahmedabad, arguably the top B-school in the country, saw a 50 per cent dip in the flow of job offers during Slot Zero, the first rung, of summer placement.

The chairman of the IIM Ahmedabad placement committee, Saral Mukherjee, however, declined to comment before the process ends on November 18.

Summer placements — part of the two-year MBA programme — at IIM Calcutta started on November 9 and by November 14, all the 300 students got offers for two-month internships with companies across the world.

The changed economic circumstances prompted the Joka institute to invite 110 firms instead of the usual 80-85 — a strategy that ensured robust placements for the first-year batch of the postgraduate programme.

“We anticipated that the number of offers per company would go down so we invited more companies to the campus,” Perumalsamy said.

Slot Zero has always been dominated by investment banks that offer global positions and better stipends, but this year it was a healthy mix of companies from various sectors.

There was an increase in interest in marketing and consulting as well as in media, logistics and supply chain management, general management, public sector undertakings and analytics firms this year.

Public sector companies like the Securities and Exchange Board of India and the National Thermal Power Corporation picked up students from IIM Calcutta for the first time. Media companies also offered internships.

Yahoo, Amazon, Provogue, DHL Logistics, Reebok, Century Ply and the Mahindra Group were among the 25 companies that debuted on the Calcutta campus this year.

Despite a dip in the number of students — from 120 last year to 100 this year — who got placed during Slot Zero and the absence of one of its biggest recruiters, Lehman Brothers, the mood on the campus was upbeat.

“The decrease in the number of students placed in Slot Zero was along expected lines given the recession-like situation but we are happy with the result of this year’s placements,” said a second-year student.

The institute, however, refused to divulge the number of international offers which had a reached an all-time high of 137 last year.