Festivals over, the National Institute of Technology (NIT), Patna, is once again gearing up for a fresh round of campus placements.

On November 24, the institute would hold pool placements in which students from other engineering colleges would sit together with NIT-Patna competing for jobs.

Magneti Marelli, an Italian automobile company, would hold an online test followed by group discussion and interview. Other participating institutes are NIT-Durgapur, NIT-Rourkela, NIT-Jamshedpur and Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra.

NIT-Patna placement in-charge G.K. Chaudhary said: “From the beginning of this academic session, our institute has taken various initiatives inviting companies for campus recruitment. This time, we have invited Magneti Marelli.”

Sources said the concept of pool placements has both advantages and disadvantages. Generally, the hiring company recruits a large number of students, but on the flip side, students of the institute holding pool placements are not very lucky in bagging placements.

However, before the arrival of Magneti Marelli, NIT-Patna students would sit for an online test of the Trident Group, a diversified group of manufacturing and service providing companies.

Gyan Shankar Singh, a final-year mechanical engineering student, said: “On November 19, Trident would hold an online test followed by an interview for selected candidates in Punjab’s Barnala district.”

As Trident is a Tier-I company offering an annual package of Rs 9 lakh per annum, around 263 students from NIT-Patna have registered for the online test. Also, students from 38 engineering colleges, including many IITs, would appear for the online test. Followed by Magneti Marelli and Trident, Infosys Technologies would visit the institute on November 28.

NIT-Patna placement officer Asim Kumar Burman said: “Despite recession, the placement scenario at the institute till now is better than compared to that in 2012. Till now, around 50 per cent students have been placed, while it was around 30-40 per cent in 2012.” Around 70 per cent of students of the previous batch was placed after placements picked up towards end-February.

The placement officer’s statement assumes importance, as few visiting companies indulged in mass recruitment. In September, IBM, a multinational company, recruited 69 students as against Capgemini’s 27 the same month.