Students are not interested in entering the “process industry” and are instead gravitating towards IT, finance, and consultancy roles — driven by “pay packages and job comfort”—a trend that concerns IIT Roorkee Director Prof. Kamal Kishore Pant.
“Students are now not going for hardcore jobs, which is a kind of worry. They look at IT jobs, banking, finance, and consultancy. In the beginning, they look at the (pay) package, and the job comfort…so, whether they have an office, computer, AC room,” Prof Pant said, on the sidelines of the institute’s convocation this week.
Prof Pant was responding to a question on placements at IITs.
“Though we are encouraging students to consider this field, they do not want to enter the process industry. Industries are coming to the institute, and we are building strong connections with MSMEs (micro, small, and medium enterprises) as well as large-scale industries. Computer, IT…these jobs may offer lucrative pay packages; however, if you look at the long term, then these hardcore industries also pay equally well,” he said.
“This is the kind of lessons or training we have to give the young generation and their parents when they join the institute. They should not look at only one branch; they should look at other branches also…mechanical, electrical, chemical…because these are equally important,” he said, adding that process industries and MSMEs are important to the growth of the country in terms of GDP and development.
Asked about the reluctance to join process industries and whether it was linked to pay packages, Prof Pant said: “Yes, of course…because when you talk about multinationals tech companies like Google, Microsoft, etc, their packages are different compared to core industries. On average, salaries in hardcore industries are around Rs 20–25 lakh per year. However, in these companies, packages can reach Rs 1–2 crore, as salaries are sometimes paid in dollars even when the employees are working in India.”
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He further said that such offers are “quite low” and one cannot expect that all students of a particular branch will get 100 percent placement with that package. “There will always be a kind of Gaussian distribution,” he added.
Prof Pant took charge as Director of IIT Roorkee in 2022. While the institute became IIT Roorkee later, it is the country’s first engineering college.
Earlier this year, data presented in a report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education, Women, Children, Youth and Sports, showed that in more than half of the country’s 23 IITs, placements for BTech students dropped by more than 10 percentage points in 2023-24 compared to 2021-22.
Data in the report showed that at IIT Roorkee, 98.54% of the 822 students who appeared for placements in 2021-22 were placed. In 2023-24, 1052 students appeared for placements, and 79.66% of them were placed.
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Clarifying the recent drop in IIT placements, Prof Pant said: “I would not call it a decline, because on average about 85% of those who appear for placements are getting jobs. If you calculate against the total number of graduating students, the figure looks lower, since many do not sit for placements. That is not the correct way to measure. The right metric is how many of those who registered for placements were selected—and that figure is over 85%.”
With training in entrepreneurship and skill development, students are encouraged to establish start-ups, he said.
Asked if fewer students are now sitting for placements, he said: “Yes. Students today have different mindsets. Some want to start their own companies, some are pursuing higher education—though that number is now decreasing—and many prefer to do something independently within the country. They are forming teams and launching different kinds of start-ups, so that trend is also emerging.”