Placements at the Adityapur-based NIT Jamshedpur got off to a stellar start with as many as 80 students so far getting plum jobs offered by recruiters through an online process.

Around 600 BTech students of the 2017-21 batch from various streams are to participate in this year’s placements.

The process is online this year due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Usually, recruiters visit the campus for head-hunting.

Prahlad Prasad, the professor in charge of training and placement, said that so far, 80 students have been recruited since the placement process began in the last week of August.

“Around 20 companies have already participated in the online recruitment drive. We are expecting another 10 companies by the end of September,” Prasad told The Telegraph Online.

He added that the highest package of Rs 30 lakh per annum was offered by Amazon.

Most students who have been already recruited belong to the computer science engineering stream.

The average package offered by the companies is around Rs 18 lakh per annum.

“As per the trends and feedback received from our past as well new recruiters, we expect that more than 90 per cent of the students will be recruited by the end of the placement season. Most of the companies will visit the campus once the situation becomes normal,” said Prasad.

Significantly, no offers have been revoked for the 2020 batch despite tough economic conditions.

Around 92 per cent of the students in the previous batch (2016-20) secured placements, and the average CTC was Rs 8.71 lakh per annum.

One of the students in the previous batch landed the highest salary package in the history of the institute. Vaibhaav Srinath Dev of the mechanical engineering stream was offered 85,000 euros (Rs 70 lakh) per annum by BMS United Bunkers Ltd, an oil trading company with headquarters in Athens, Greece.

The second-highest package of Rs 43.3 lakh was secured by Aman Kumar and Kanishka, both from the computer science engineering stream. They were picked up by IT major Microsoft.

An official of the training and placement cell said: “We have been getting good placements for the past few years due to the hard work put in by the cell members.”

He said that over 100 companies are expected to recruit students in the ongoing placement drive which will continue for one year till July next year.