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    Coronavirus spoils internship plans at IIMs

    Synopsis

    The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a record number of summer internships getting cancelled across the Indian Institutes of Management, the scale of which, say these institutes, is unlike anything they have seen in the past.

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    KOLKATA | NEW DELHI: The Covid-19 pandemic has led to a record number of summer internships getting cancelled across the Indian Institutes of Management, the scale of which, say these institutes, is unlike anything they have seen in the past.

    According to placement sources at multiple IIMs across Ahmedabad, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode and Udaipur, anywhere between 5-25% of the batch sizes have been affected by the cancellation/withdrawal of such summer internship offers. Gartner, Grofers, Udaan, Dunzo, Raymond, Royal Enfield, Paragon Partners are among the companies that have cancelled internships, said institutes.

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    These internships, offered by companies during the summer placements process held in the first year of the two-year flagship programme, are important to students as many of them subsequently land job offers based on their performance during this stint.

    “IIMs have seen bad times before like in 2008-09 but this is unprecedented,” says Janat Shah, director of IIM Udaipur, where anywhere between 65-80 students from the 285-strong batch were affected.

    “At such a scale, it may have been the first time as far as I remember,” says IIM Ahmedabad placement chairperson Amit Karna. About 21 offers (~5% of the batch) were revoked at IIM Ahmedabad whereas at IIM Kozhikode, it was about 10%. An IIM Lucknow student put the number at upwards of 5%.

    “This is the first time companies have revoked internship offers made to our students,” said Debashis Chatterjee, director, IIM Kozhikode.

    Besides multiple cancellations, some companies have slashed their internship stipends, while a few others have even made them unpaid.

    “Under these unforeseen circumstances, students have been accommodated in other opportunities or have sustained their offers by accepting modified terms and conditions,” said an IIM Indore spokesperson.

    Typically students can earn anywhere between ₹50,000-4 lakh for a two-month summer internship.

    However, IIMs and students have managed to use their network of companies and alumni to land other internships. Companies such as Mondelez, FinIQ, Axis Bank, Bain & Co, Dr. Reddy’s, Titan, NextWealth, iLEAD Group among others have stepped in to accommodate students who had been left high and dry.

    Meanwhile many other recruiters including HUL, ITC, JP Morgan India, Goldman Sachs, Capgemini, Mondelez, KPMG are honouring offers through online induction of summer interns, who can then do their projects while working from home.

    Placement sources said however that students will remember companies going back on their commitments.

    “When markets improve, they will find it difficult to attract good talent from the IIMs,” said a placement team member at a top IIM.


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