Ranchi, Oct 17: Over 100 final-year college students of Ranchi will have a happier Durga Puja this year.

Reason? They have been chosen for higher studies with attractive stipends by an IT major. And the cherry on the cake is that they will subsequently get employment opportunities in the company.

Wipro conducted a selection process at Ranchi's Marwari College on Thursday and Friday and selected 105 students from a total of four local institutions.

"Besides ours, students from Ranchi College, Gossner College and Ranchi Women's College also participated in the selection process," said Shishir Kumar, Marwari College's chief placement coordinator.

Of those selected, 55 have been chosen for Wipro Academy of Software Excellence (WASE) programme, 32 for Wipro Software Technology Academy (WiSTA) and 18 for jobs under global infrastructure services, Kumar added.

Of the total 350 students, 185 got through the preliminary rounds of online tests on October 15.

WASE and WiSTA are Wipro's collaborative programmes with BITS-Pilani and Vellore Institute of Technology, respectively, that offer MTech degree in software technology to students after they complete a four-year, eight-semester, off-campus course while working on Wipro projects simultaneously.

They are also offered a monthly scholarship of Rs 13,500, Rs 16,000, Rs 19,000 and Rs 23,000 during first, second, third and fourth year of their courses, besides book allowances.

Industry insiders, however, said that those who join the IT sector after completing a regular, two-year MTech course have an edge in the job market over the students who go for the four-year, off-campus MTech course.

Those selected are, however, not complaining.

"My father has retired from the army and it would be very difficult for me to pay the fees for pursuing a regular MTech course at BITS-Pilani," said Ketan Mishra, a final-year BSc (computer science) student of Ranchi College, selected for the WASE programme.