Amid fears of another economic downturn, companies, mostly information technology (IT) firms, have taken a “go-slow” policy towards hiring graduates from Birla Institute of Technology-Patna.

At the engineering college, only 56 per cent students have been offered jobs as compared to 75 per cent placement in 2011 during the same period.

With less than six months left for the students to get their engineering degree, no major public sector undertakings (PSUs) have turned up with offer for jobs.

BIT-Patna training and placement in-charge Raj Kumar said: “About 56 per cent students have been placed this year. The figure is lesser compared to 2011 when 75 per cent students were placed within this period of time.”

Most of the students have been placed in the IT sector this year. However, IT major Infosys, which hires in bulk, is yet to turn up for recruitment. Every year, the company provides jobs to more than 30,000 students from various engineering colleges across the country.

“As of now, Infosys has not turned up for hiring our students. There are remote chances that the firm will visit this year,” said a senior official with BIT-Patna.

When contacted, Tanveer Singh, human resource east, Infosys, said: “We have visited IIT and NIT-Patna but we couldn’t visit BIT-Patna because of some technical reasons.”

Other IT companies like Wipro Technologies and Cognizant have offered jobs to less number of students compared to 2011. According to BIT sources, Wipro Technologies has offered jobs to only 16 students this year, while 72 were offered jobs in 2011. Cognizant, an IT major, has offered jobs to 30 students compared to 76 last year. (See chart)

Indranil Goswami, a civil engineering student at BIT-Patna, has been offered a job by Cognizant. According to him, the reason behind IT companies not recruiting in bulk this year is an economic slowdown in Europe and US.

“The IT companies are not getting new projects from abroad. Many companies have already freezed recruitment. Firms, which are hiring this year, have brought down the number of candidates for recruitment,” Goswami added.

The condition of the IT market could be gauged from the fact that Wipro Technologies has sent offer letters in October 2012 to students who were hired in 2011.

The response from the core sector, too, is very poor compared to IT companies. Sources said the reason behind core companies not visiting the institute is that most PSUs have decided to recruit on the basis of Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) score and interview. Thus, the firms have decided not to visit institutes for recruitment.

PSUs that will take GATE scores into consideration while hiring include, NTPC, Indian Oil Corporation, Bharat Petroleum, Gas Authority of India Limited, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited and others.