Jamshedpur, July 29: The Adityapur-based National Institute of Technology is reaping the harvest of cyber revolution.

Campus recruitment got off to a buoyant start with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) recruiting 43 students — the highest ever by any company in the history of the institute. Over 158 students had appeared for the online test (which began yesterday afternoon and continued till late in the night) of whom 120 students were called for an interview. Forty-three were selected. The institute introduced the online placement facility recently.

The institute’s placement office wore a festive look as students patted each other for outstanding performance. Training and placement officer and dean of student affairs N.K. Narayan confirmed that it was for the first time so many students were recruited by the company.

“We are happy that the recruitment process began on a positive note. This will boost the morale of students who will appear for campus interview later this year,” Narayan said.

According to him, students were picked up from various engineering streams including electrical (8), mechanical (8), production (5), electronics (4), civil (4), masters in computer applications (4) and computer science (6). The company also picked up four M.Tech students.

The campus recruitment programme (2004-05) which began today will continue till May next year. During this period, companies from software and core sectors will visit the campus to recruit students. Defence, oil companies and leading NGOs like Pradaan have also shown interest in NIT. This year’s batch size for campus recruitment includes 220 students.

Officials of the training and placement cell said TCS had recruited 12 students from the previous batch (2003-04) while the highest recruiter was Infosys, another software giant, which picked up 32 students from various streams followed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), which recruited 16 students.

An overwhelmed Rajat Kumar, a civil engineering student, picked up by TCS said, “It is like a dream come true. I got a company of choice.” Several students echoed him. A 10-member team from TCS headed by Supratik Bhattacharya, manager (HR), conducted the interview. According to NIT officials, though the salary offered by TCS was almost the same as last year’s, students will get more perks and benefits.

Infosys will be the next company to visit the NIT campus. Officials said Infosys will conduct the test followed by an interview on August 2.

Sources in NIT said the computer centre of the institute has been renovated and more personal computers (PCs) with latest softwares have been added to facilitate smooth online campus selection.