Success story: XIMB

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 2: In recession season, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar (XIMB), has proven pundits wrong with a 100 per cent placement for its rural management students.

All the 59 students of PG diploma in rural management have been placed in various organisations even before their course ends in mid-March. “All of us were keeping our fingers crossed and were not sure of this so early, as we were getting discouraging news from different institutions across the country. Now, we feel happy and proud,” said S. Shiv, the co-ordinator of students’ placement committee.

Companies like Deloitte, Monsanto, Tata Teleservices, Shriram Group, Devgen, Mother Dairy, Amul, IMRB, Indian Immunologicals were the major companies, which hit the campus for recruiting rural managers.

The top B-school in Orissa also remained a favourite hunting ground for some of the major micro-finance and development organisations like Microsave, IntelliCap, Bandhan, Hands in Hand, Pradaan, A Little World and ALC.

The highest salary offered was Rs 8 lakh per annum, while the average annual contract was Rs 4.46 lakh. More than 30 organisations participated in the process.

“It is a some sort of record. When most of the management institutions dealing with sectoral management education is struggling because of unfavourable market conditions we have been able to do it,” claimed Niraj Kumar, a member of the placement committee.

“We have been not only been able to keep our traditional recruiters happy with the quality performances by our students but have been able to widen our base by reaching to research-based organisations like IMRB and consulting organisations like Deloitte,” added Kumar.

Udai Krishna, a first-year student, said: “This year’s placement was an experience for us as companies were much more quality-conscious and were very selective in the process. Although now we are hopeful for next year too, but we need to work harder to meet the increasing expectations from the recruiters.”

“We could beat the market because of the consistent performance of our students and brand XIMB,” said its placement co-ordinator Saveeta Mohanty.