Ashutosh Agarwal has struck gold at Google.

A 21-year-old computer science student from IIT-Patna, Ashutosh has not only landed a job at Google but has broken all placement records at the city's premier engineering college. The annual package offered to the final-year student by the online search giant is a jaw-dropping Rs 1.8 crore. This is the highest ever figure for any student in Patna.

Last year, the highest package offered at IIT was Rs 28 lakh by Amazon. The online retail giant gave the offer to four students.

Before catching a flight on Wednesday for hometown Lucknow, Ashutosh spoke to The Telegraph. He said: "Hard work, dedication and good education I have received since my schooldays and later here, at IIT Patna, have brought me this success. Computer science is different from other traditional subjects. Here, you have to think differently. You need to sharpen your skills using your brains."

The youngster has known the news for some time now. A quick look at his Facebook account on Wednesday revealed a post Ashutosh made on October 13. "Thank You everyone for your heartfelt wishes! The day was made even grand by appreciation and love that met me! Excitement is still high! Celebrations will persist!!! #Google #JobPlacements #WantNYCAgain", he wrote with an apt emotion - awesome.

With his job offer, Ashutosh has become the first student from IIT-Patna to get a job at Google. He said: "My placement with Google will open doors of IIT for Google and other top IT companies in the world."

This is not the first time Ashutosh would make his way to the IT giant's office. In May this year, he went to New York for a 14-week internship with the company. He worked with a team on interactive media ads or what we know as Google AdSense, which serves up advertisements based on a browser's location and IP address. Based on his performance as an intern, Ashutosh - called Ashu by many - was invited for an interview.

The process to land the job was not all easy though, as he went through several rounds of interviews to impress his recruiters. Ashutosh, who is good in computer coding, was asked to solve various software problems which he did efficiently. It's not yet clear though which Google office he will join after finishing his course at IIT.

Ashutosh, however, is not just academic. He enjoys creating and working on new computer programmes as much as he likes attending cultural fests at the tech cradle and reading Agatha Christie thrillers.

"I love reading books by Paulo Coelho, Amish Tripathi and Agatha Christie, playing videogames and solving computer coding problems in my free time. It was my interest in computer coding that last year I was judged as one of the best projects in Google Summer of Code, a global programme that offers students stipends to write a code for open source projects," he said.

A friend of Ashutosh's at IIT said: "Ashutosh is quite interested in extra-curricular activities at the college and is far from just being a bookworm. He has been the coordinator of the cultural wing of Anwesha - the annual techno-cultural fest of IIT-Patna - last year."

Sources said this year, the world's IT giants are recruiting more students from Indian engineering colleges. Abishek Pant, a computer science student at IIT-Kharagpur, received a job offer of Rs 2 crore per annum from Google this year as did Chetan Kakkar, a student of Delhi Technological University. Kakkar bagged a package of Rs 1.27 crore from Google. Both these students also got their jobs based on their internships.