Kolkata, March 10 (IANS) The global recession has taken its toll on the salary packages of India’s new corporate managers, with the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta (IIM-C), seeing a drop of 23 percent in the average salary offered to its fresh graduates.
“The average salary fell by around 23 percent this time. But it has to be emphasised that the firms that visited the campus last year did not lower their packages this year. The intake per company has come down, resulting in the fall in package,” IIM-C director Shekahr Chaudhuri told newspersons here Tuesday.

Conceding that recession has affected placements in the IIM-C, Chaudhuri said: “We, however, succeeded in finding placements for all our 265 students in the sectors they preferred by staggering the placement process to 10 days, spread over two phases. We closed it down only after all our students were recruited.”

The domestic average annual salary offered this year is Rs.1.27 million, with the highest offer being Rs.6 million. Last year the domestic average salary was Rs.1.64 million, and the highest offer Rs.6.5 million.

The average international package exclusive of bonus is $86,785, with the highest offer being $130,000.

“Given the global scenario, where jobs are hard to come by, we are happy with the placement of graduates. We had apprehensions that the situation could be much worse,” he said.

While 39 international companies came calling last year, in 2008-09, the number fell to 29.

Despite the financial sector being the hardest hit, 40 percent of the students - as against 34 percent last year - opted for finance jobs, both in India and abroad.

Of the total 56 offers from the finance companies, 16 came from Wall Street bankers, including Barclkays Capital, Merrill Lynch, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley and Macqarie Bank.

Among the consultancy firms, MCkinsay and Co came up with 10 offers, while Frost and Sullivan, first-time recruiters in India, made seven job offers.

Other big recruiters included Boston Consulting Group, Bain and Company, A.T. Kearney, and Cognizant Business Consulting.

Though IIM-C authorities had targeted 170 companies, only 86 - as against 107 last year - came to the campus.

An interesting feature this year was that public sector undertakings made a major comeback in the recruitment process.

While last year only one PSU had pitched tent, seven came this year recruiting 34 students. The PSUs included NTPC, Coal India, Indian Oil, SIDBI, and nationalised banks - Bank of Baroda and Union Bank of India.