Campus placements at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Patna, have belied the myth of a sluggish job market and shown the way to more companies to follow suit.

Fatter pay packages are being seen as a silver lining to the trend.

Leading the order is Microsoft IDC that has offered a cool annual package of Rs 16 lakh to each of the six students of computer science department. Flipkart, a popular shopping portal founded by two IIT alumni, has recruited three students at an annual package of Rs 12.5 lakh each. Of them, two are from the computer science department, while the third is from the electrical branch.

Of the 91 students final-year BTech students, 36 have been placed till now.

In the next two months, a large number of multinational companies such as Amazon, the world’s biggest online retailer, software giant Adobe, assets management organisation Morgan Stanley, auto mobile major Honda and others are likely to visit IIT-Patna to recruit more students.

Of the 36 students placed so far, 20 are from the computer science department, 10 from the electrical branch and six from the mechanical stream. Training and placement cell in-charge Suresh Prasad said: “In January and February, many companies would visit the institute for recruitment. Around 90 per cent of the students are expected to be placed by mid-February.”

Sources attributed the placement figure of below 50 per cent to the companies’ preference of visiting the older IITs first and then the newer ones. They added that the placement figure of students at IIT-Patna till now is better than that of the previous year. Around 40 per cent of IIT-Patna students had been placed this year, while it was 30 to 35 per cent in the corresponding period in 2012.

GSS Praveen Chand, a final-year BTech student, said: “We are not much worried about placements, as many companies would visit the institute and majority of students will be placed by end-February.”

On May 9, 2008, acting on an Act of Parliament, the ministry of human resource development decided to set up eight new IITs during the 11th Five-Year Plan. IIT-Patna was one of the new eight IITs formed under the act and became operational on August 6, 2008.

According to Madras High Court directions, major PSUs are not visiting IIT-Patna because they would recruit candidates on the basis of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering score and interview only.