Unlike the Indian Institutes of Management (IIM) where placements were dominated by the consulting profiles, other business schools have seen an increased number of finance profiles being offered.

For instance, at Delhi?s Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), the finance sector has been the largest recruiter with 20% of the batch being placed in it. Same is the case with Institute of Management Technology (IMT), Ghaziabad where companies from the finance sector recruited 30% of the batch compared to 15-20% in earlier years.

?Traditionally, the biggest recruiters have been information technology (IT) and IT-enabled services that take up to 40% of the students. However, this time, the BFSI sector has picked up momentum by recruiting 30% of our students,? said Prakash Pathak, chairperson, placement, IMT Ghaziabad.

Placements at the institute commenced from mid-December 2010 and almost 75% of the batch – around 300 students – has been placed till now with 109 students being recruited by the BFSI sector.

The major recruiters were Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Kotak Bank, Yes Bank, Citi Group, Reserve Bank of India (RBI), HSBC, Deutsche Bank, among others of which the major first time recruiters were RBI and Goldman Sachs. The highest salary of R13 lakh ? 10% more than last year ?was offered by a couple of finance firms including Goldman Sachs.

This trend is different from what the IIMs have exhibited. At IIM Indore, management consulting and investment banking stood out as the most sought after profiles and 28% of the people accepted finance roles while 25% accepted consulting roles.

?This is a marked changed from previous years when finance roles dominated more than 40% of placements,? the institute said in a statement.

At the Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), Delhi, financial firms with a number of offers made across private equity, investment banking, markets, treasury, asset management, corporate finance, and wholesale and retail banking. Niche profiles offered by private equity firm Avigo Capital and investment banking major Avendus Capital emerged as some of the most sought after roles on campus. Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank returned to campus in style, making six and five offers respectively.

?The highest package offered was of R26 lakh by Avendus Capital, up 28% from last year,? said a member of FMS? placement team.