Reflecting the recent trend of an upswing in the agri-business industry, the average salaries offered to the pass-outs of Agri-Business Management (ABM) at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, saw a 35 per cent rise at Rs 7 lakh this year. In 2004, the average salary offered to ABM graduates was Rs 5.20 lakh. In terms of annual salary, ITC’s International Business Division came up with the highest offer in India at Rs 8 lakh. Al Ghanim’s, a Kuwait-based corporate, was the top overseas offer at $55,000. Al Ghanim along with KUOK Oils, a business house in Singapore and Malaysia, National Commodities Derivatives Exchange (NCDEX), the biggest commodities exchange in India and ICICI Lombard were among the companies that visited the IIM-A campus for the first time for recruitment this year. Eleven other recruiters like, Godrej Agrovet, ITC HDFC, Murugappa National Dairy Development Board too came calling for recruits. According to Vinod Ahuja, Chairperson of the Agri-Business Management course, ‘‘The placements process, which got over today, reflect two things. One, the course is being recognised by the industry. And secondly, there is a general trend that the agri-industry is looking up.’’ Commenting on the placements and the profile of the companies that visited the campus this year, Ahuja said, ‘‘It reflects a thrust of the agri-industry in commodity trading, agri-insurance sector and retail management.’’ ‘‘Agri-Business Management course at IIMA was started four years back keeping in mind the demand for professional managers in the agriculture sector. And since then, we have constantly restructured our courses, deleting some old elements and introducing new ones over this period,’’ added Ahuja. A total of 22 students of the 2003-05 batch were placed in 12 of the 15 companies that visited the campus this year. For the first time, four students — 20 per cent of the batch — got placements abroad. Last year, there was only one overseas placement. There were 35 other domestic offers of which just 14 were lapped up by the students, while seven students got placements during the ‘laterals’ (where the institute puts forward suitable students for interviews).
