IIT AND KOTA

At IIT Kharagpur, all eyes were on Ritesh Singh on Monday. The MTech student of computer science and engineering was surrounded by  friends  and swamped with congratulatory messages from those away from the campus due to the winter break.  Ritesh has been an  Aam Aadmi Party  (AAP) insider for the past one year, the only one on the campus. And AAP leader Arvind Kejrwal is an IIT Kharagpur alumnus, being a mechanical engineering BTech of the 1989 batch.  The campus had been celebrating since Sunday afternoon. Students donning Kejriwal-like caps came out in large numbers and engaged in animated conversations throughout the day.  Singh had opted out of placements last year so he could spend time in New Delhi and get to know the central AAP leadership. After his formal association was cemented, he returned to the IIT Kharagpur campus and enrolled for the MTech programme. As a national executive of the party, his job was initially to monitor the online...

The global entrepreneurship summit (GES), the annual flagship event of the entrepreneurship cell of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur will be held from January 10 to 12, 2014. The global entrepreneurship summit 2014 The summit plays host to India’s only global conference which provides a platform to discuss promotion of entrepreneurship with a global perspective. It is one of the biggest entrepreneurial platforms for academicians, new age entrepreneurs, eminent business personalities, venture capitalists and students to gather at one place and share their endeavours and experiences. The video conferencing session will serve as a conclave for discussion of opportunities and programmes aimed at promoting entrepreneurship in various universities across the world. The conference will be followed by a discussion among the entrepreneurship cells in different institutions in the country about the scenario and how to promote entrepreneurship in respective campuses. ...

Expertise in radar technology and its successful association with the Indian Space Research Organization (Isro) over the years may soon make the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, eligible for a partnership with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) for a collaborative research. The presence of two scientists from the premier space research agency in Kharagpur on Monday fanned speculations that IIT-Kharagpur has evolved as the front-runner for the coveted tie-up. After the success of Chandrayaan, Mangalayaan and the four-year partnership for an oceanic wind measuring radar - Scatterometer - the next most talked about futuristic collaborative project would be the NI-SAR, or the Nasa-Isro radar mission. The radar, which is yet to receive final clearance from the respective governments, is one of the most discussed scientific projects in the country at present, specially because of the precision with which it promises to pre-empt natural calamities. IIT ...

For the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs), this placement season may be much beyond their expectations. IITs say, given the economic scenario, they expected placements to be a muted affair, but the response from companies has been quite good. There is more. Placement cells have recorded an increase of 10-20% in average salary levels. The highest salary offered has seen an increase of around 20-90 per cent as compared to last year. Final placements on IIT campuses begin on December 1. "Given the slowdown, we wondered if the placements would be as decent as last year but a good number of companies have confirmed participation allaying our fears," said a placement official from IIT Bombay. A US-based software major has offered the highest salary (so far) of Rs 1.30 crore per annum, to an IIT Bombay student. However, an institute official said this cannot be confirmed till placements begin as the final offer has not been made yet. Last year Samsung (Korea) offered the...

With less than a fortnight to go for placements to begin at the IITs, the most talked-about thing on the campuses is perhaps the fact that  Facebook  and  Twitter   are not coming for this year's placements. And  IIT Kharagpur  is no exception. The administration is, however, putting up a brave face. Since Twitter never recruited from IIT-Kgp, it only has to lick the Facebook hurt. Last year, the social media site had recruited four students from here. The rest of the recruiters have confirmed their participation to IIT-Kgp, though the number of students that will finally get picked up at the end of placements might be sizeably lower than last year. Last year, 131 students got selected. Perhaps more than Facebook, the campus is ruing the fact that  Rio Tinto , the mining major from Australia, will not participate in placements this year. It has wound up its India operations after completing its contract here, said the institute's placement cell...

Current Pre-placement offers are indicating a good start for placements at IITs this year Among the companies who have lined up international offers are Google, which has offered salaries of $120,000 (Rs 75 lakh) compared with Rs 73 lakh last year to one student at its US headquarters to students at IIT Kharagpur and IIT Guwahati. Facebook, too, has offered overseas jobs at IIT Madras and IIT Roorkee while Microsoft has made oofers at IIT Kanpur and IIT Roorkee. Both the companies are expected to revise last year’s offer upwards— Facebook’s Rs 65 lakh and Microsoft’s Rs 60 lakh. Himanshu Srivastava (22) of IIT Kharagpur, who has received the offer from Google, is looking forward to his stint with Google. “I have done two internships for the company and I know their work culture. They mix work and fun well and give ample scope to grow,” he says. Several other top recruiters have made lucrative offers at IIT campuses, but are yet to disclose the details. Among these are Barclays, Lin...