If placements are any indication, then the Indian Institute of Managments (IIMs) have yet again proved that they are the places for an MBA aspirant. Placement season at the IIMs this time mirrored the current state of the global and Indian economy. Salaries offered to IIM graduates have been better than ever and the campuses also saw more companies trooping in. Even though there was some salary difference in terms of the dollar and the rupee offered to graduates of IIM, Lucknow, Indore and Kozikode (compared with IIM, Ahmedabad, Bangalore and Calcutta), they too showed improvement over the previous years.A chartered accountant from IIM, Ahmedabad (IIMA) has bagged the highest salary offered by a foreign company — a whopping annual salary of $1,52,000 by HSBC, London. But when it came to domestic salaries, IIM, Bangalore (IIMB) stole the show over its counterpart in Ahmedabad. While the best domestic salary offered by any recruiter at IIMA has been Rs 13 lakh by McKinsey, at least seven IIMB graduates have been offered Rs 15 lakh as domestic salary by McKinsey and BCG.Placements in IIMA will complete on March 21.IIM, Calcutta (IIMC) and IIM, Lucknow (IIML) too, have so far done better than IIMA in lapping up better domestic offers. While McKinsey has offered Rs 14.5 lakh to an IIMC student, a Lucknow graduate has an offer of Rs 14 lakh by the same company.Even in 2004, IIMC beat the rest by bagging the highest domestic salary of Rs 14 lakh.IIMB, too witnessed an unprecedented rise in salary offered overseas. The highest dollar salary offered at IIMB in 2004 was $75,000, while it has risen this year with Lehman Brothers offering a whopping $1,20,000. The overseas salary at IIMC has remained static at $1,00,000 offered by Bank of America. But the highest domestic salary offered saw a modest increase to Rs 14.5 lakh from last year’s Rs 14 lakh. IIM, Kozikode, this year, saw foreign recruiters make their debut on its campus. The best salary offered here was $85,000 for overseas placement by Capital One. While, no foreign recruiters went to IIM, Indore, the highest salary given here was Rs 10.5 lakh.
