between Rs 4 lakh and Rs 7.5 lakh pa. The Delhi College of Engineering (DCE) has finished more than half of the placement for its batch of 600 students. “TCS has already recruited 40, followed by IBM, Deloitte and Airtel,” said Itsit Dang (21), an engineering student.

Professor NS Narahari, director (placement) in RV College of Engineering, said: “There has been a rise in salary packages and number of offers made by the companies.” The college saw firms like Cognizant, HP, Informatica, Infosys, Accenture, TCS visiting their campus.

The IT sector’s return to gains is making more students opting for a career in this sector. Symbiosis Institute of Business Management’s (SIBM) Bangalore dean Pankaj Gupta said that earlier IT companies were not favourite on B-School campuses but the trend is changing and students prefer to join IT firms. “For each IT job, we are getting lot of application from students.”

HS Jagadeesh, placement officer, BMS, said: “IT is favourite among students but firms are now very cautious and want students to have long-term career with them.”

However, it has not been just the technology companies which have paying higher salaries. P&G, HUL, Bain, Boston Consulting Group have been offering competitive salary packages to IIT graduates in the range of Rs 9-13 lakh. Consulting firms and banks such as Parthenon and Goldman Sachs are offering a package of Rs 18.5-25 lakh pa. Financial services firm Tower Research has offered a salary package of Rs 25 lakh and Rs 8 lakh bonus at IIT-Delhi to handle its IT and alogrithm work.