Internship offers for 2020-21 flood IITs

MUMBAI: Premier IITs are flooded with internship offers for the 2020-21 batch, even though the upcoming placement season for the current year does not seem upbeat. Most IITs have reported a record rise in internship offers in the first phase and in several cases the numbers have already crossed last year’s total and are expected to grow.
Students from the 2020-21 batch may have even more reason to cheer as many of the firms queuing up at IITs have doubled their stipends too.The highest so far, at least at four of the premier institutes, is Rs 2.5 lakh a month.
At IIT-Kharagpur, 510 internship offers are already made till the end of last week. “The process for some more companies is yet to be completed. The second phase will start next semester,” said a student representative from the institute. Last year, the institute received 461 internship offers in both phases put together. The placement season for internships commences in August and goes on till April every year. Students hope to convert most internships into pre-placement offers (PPOs) for the 2020-21. “The number of PPOs will rise next year,” said an IIT-Delhi student.
“We are reaching out to more companies this year for internships and many of our regulars have not only increased the number of offers but also doubled their stipends,” said an overall students’ coordinator at IIT-Kanpur.
The season has been the best so far, said the Kanpur representative. Students at the institute have already bagged around 311 offers till this week compared with 353 during the whole year. Tower Research, which has not confirmed its presence for the placement season at the institute, has already offered internship role for a package of Rs 2.5 lakh a month, said the student. Most internships are for two months in summer. “Companies which earlier offered Rs 60,000 are now offering Rs 1.15 lakh.”
Students getting stipends of over Rs 1 lakh a month rose three-fold at IIT-Roorkee. Last year, till the first week of November, merely 42 students had bagged the coveted offers for Rs 1 lakh or more a month. This year, they total 153. Total offers during the same period (from August to November first week) too rose from 273 to 333. The average stipend rose from Rs 52,000 in 2018 to Rs 65,000, said an official. The highest package is the same as last year at Rs 2 lakh.
In a statement, an official from IIT-Bombay’s placement cell said, “The number of internship offers at IIT-B have increased comparatively, but the names of the organisations cannot be shared at this stage.” The highest package offered at IIT-Bombay too stands at Rs 2.5 lakh. At IIT-Madras, internship offers have risen substantially this year, said an official spokesperson.
The first phase of internships at IIT-Hyderabad was held in ‘fast-track’ mode in October. It saw 86 offers from 25 companies, including six international. “We hope for more offers in first half of 2020,” said Pradeep Kumar Yemula, faculty-in-charge of placements, in a press statement.