premier trade body and the chamber of commerce of the IT industry in India — directed that campus recruitments be conducted only in the last semester.

Recently, Accenture, an IT company had planned to conduct a major recruitment drive in a city college, but had to suddenly scrap their plans and postpone the drive. They claim they did so because NASSCOM pressurised them.

Pune Mirror published a report on July 5, 2010 which showed the letters the NASSCOM president had issued to companies and colleges regarding the shift in the campus recruitment season. In the letter, NASSCOM stated that, ‘this 8th semester recruitment should become the ‘standard practice’ henceforth.

However, colleges in the city went ahead with recruitment drives as companies kept on approaching them. But as a company of the stature of Accenture has refrained from the recruitment drive, it will be interesting to see if other companies follow suit.

Accenture was to hold a pool campus drive for students of the 2011 batch. As per their plan, the company was about to conduct an aptitude test on July 18. The drive was to be held at the Pimpri Chinchwad College of Engineering (PCCOE) and almost 1,200 students had enrolled for it.

It was considered as a major recruitment drive for the 2011 batch. Students from seven colleges in the city were to take part. Students of Cummins College of Engineering, PICT, PCCOE, MMCOE, AISSMS, PVG, AG Awate College, etc were among the participants.

When asked about it, the Training and Placement Officer (TPO) of PCCOE, confirmed the cancellation. “The company informed us of the change two days before the test date. They conveyed that they had postponed their plans for recruitment,” Professor Sheetalkumar Rawandale said.

Pressured by NASSCOM?
Although the company has not given any official reason for cancelling the placement drive, apparently the decision was made because of pressure by NASSCOM. A sources told this reporter, “The company was very willing to hire a good number of students this time.

Out of 1,200 students enrolled, a minimum of 500 were supposed to get jobs. But some other  big companies objected to the drive. These companies feared that the good  students would be hired by the time they conducted their recruitment drives.”

Apparently, Infosys, TCS and Wipro are considered as mass recruiters who visit campuses early to offer good packages to the cream of the crop. But after the NASSCOM directive, none of them have begun their recruitment drives for the fresh batch.

Pune Mirror tried to get in touch with Accenture officials through email questionnaires and repeated phone calls, to find out the reason behind the abrupt cancellation of the drive. However, no explanation was forthcoming from them.