New Delhi: Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country have kicked off their placement drives with record job offers and high salary packages, beating COVID-19 pandemic blues.

IIT-Delhi students bagged over 300 placement offers, including pre-placement offers (PPOs), by the end of the first day of the first phase of the placement season.

"Given the situation this year, a new company scheduling paradigm has been conceptualised for a smooth placement process. This is to create an optimum environment for both the recruiters and the students for a seamless selection process.

Given the fact that all selection processes are being conducted in a virtual mode this year, the entire interview process would span a single day instead of multiple shifts unlike past years and many other campuses," an IIT-Delhi official said.

"What this translates into is that the spread of companies will be more across days. This process will give ample time to recruiters to make selection judgements to facilitate the right fitment both for students and recruiting organisations, the official added.

With a record high in pre-placement offers, many students have already bagged offers as high as Rs 1.54 crore from international companies.

The packages for domestic companies have also seen a sharp rise to about Rs 80 lakh this year for all top IITs, including IIT-Madras, Bombay, Roorkee and Guwahati.

In IIT-BHU, 217 students have bagged jobs with annual CTC ranging from Rs 11.5 lakh to 64.27 lakh. Last year, it was Rs 10 lakh to Rs 58.21 lakh. In IIT-Madras, a total of 123 offers were made by 222 companies during day one's session, higher in any of the preceding years.

"The year 2020 has seen the placement process happening online and the number of recruiters joining the virtual placement has been very encouraging despite the pandemic and we are thankful to all the recruiters.

The students of IIT-Guwahati who are appearing for the placement from across the country are very determined and are likely to benefit from this online process due to the equal opportunity provided to them as other institutes and we expect an upward trend in placement this year at IIT-Guwahati," TG Shriram, Director, IIT-Guwahati.

At IIT-Bombay, 18 companies participated in the placement drive on December 1.

According to a statement from the institute, for domestic jobs, the highest number of offers came from Microsoft, Google, Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Boston Consulting Group, and Apple. Amsterdam-based proprietary trading firm Optiver, meanwhile, made lucrative international offers.