Ahmedabad, Nov. 18: Companies from across the world lapped up the entire batch of 321 IIM Ahmedabad students for summer internships but offers from financial firms were down 25 per cent from last year, confirming the impact of the global meltdown.

The slump, though, didn’t stop marketing companies from improving their share to 23 per cent — a rise of 10 per cent over 2007.

Offers from financial firms were down to 32 per cent from 57 per cent last year. Institute director Sameer Barua said the decrease reflected the “financial turmoil in the global market”.

The changed economic circumstances had earlier prompted IIM Calcutta to throw open placement doors to start-ups and smaller companies for the first time.

IIMA placement committee chairman Saral Mukherjee said 117 firms had turned up for the placement process — part of the two-year MBA programme — that ended today.

Many of these firms were visiting the campus for the first time, while some did not show up despite being invited.

Among the new firms that offered internships were micro-credit companies like Intellicap and the Institute of Financial Market Research.

For the first time, the Planning Commission offered internships. Barua attributed the four offers to the visit of panel deputy chairperson Montek Singh Ahluwalia earlier this year for a convocation address where he had evinced interest in offering internships to IIMA students. “The Planning Commission offers vast opportunities, the entire infrastructure will be at their (students’) disposal,” Barua said.

“We believe this is a significant step towards management graduates contributing in areas such as public policy and economic planning — a trend that is expected to pick up in the years to come,” said Mihir Lal, a student.

Mumbai-based Forward Markets Commission was another first-time recruiter.

The first day of placements that began on November 13 saw major banks on the campus. Except for Lehman Brothers — which offered 14 internships and eight final placements last year but has filed for bankruptcy in the intervening months — all big investment banks turned up.

Among them were the troubled Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, The Royal Bank of Scotland, Rothschilds and UBS which made 90-odd offers.

Among the consulting firms, Booz and Co., a first-time recruiter in the summer process, made three offers. McKinsey had the highest number of acceptances across consulting firms with five students choosing to join the company next summer.