What comes as a validation of increasing rural focus of policy makers and the corporate, the recently-concluded placements at the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA), Anand , saw 407 offers being made from 119 recruiters for the batch of 167 students of the 38th batch of Post Graduate Programme in Rural Management (PRM 38).
The IRMA placements, held during February 4 and February 9, 2019, saw corporate bigwigs including Adani Wilmar, Godrej Agrovet, ITC Agribusiness, Pidilite, ICICI Bank, IDFC Bank, Tata Trusts besides leading startups such as Grofers, Big Basket and NinjaCart.
This year, as many as 28 students received Pre-Placement Offers (PPOs) from various organizations.
The median salary for IRMA graduates registered 14.7 per cent jump this year to Rs 11.47 lakh per annum as against Rs 10 lakh offered last year.
The packages from corporate group saw a robust 17 per cent jump over last year as average salary stood at Rs 14.24 lakh per annum as against Rs 12.17 lakh last year.
The average salary packages offered by development sector organizations including NGOs, cooperatives, and Government Development Agencies stood at Rs 10.43 lakh per annum, over 10 per cent higher than Rs 9.47 lakh offered last year.
IRMA revealed that the maximum salary offered stood at Rs 50.31 lakh per annum while the minimum salary consciously chosen by the student in the development sector stood at Rs 6.20 lakh.
"This year we have seen great interest from the CSR foundations for recruitment. Also, organised retail came in large number to recruit. We have seen great demand from Rural sales and marketing segment," Professor Pratik Modi, Placement Coordinator at IRMA told Businessline.
Adding further he said, "This year’s placements experienced a substantial increase in the number of overall job offers compared to the previous year. As an indication of the increased engagement of business as well as development sector organizations with the rural space IRMA received 407 job offers from 119 recruiters for the batch."
Notably, among the verticals, agribusiness saw maximum average annual package at Rs 19.71 lakh, followed by FMCG and retail at Rs 14.15 lakh and rural sales & marketing at Rs 13.51 lakh.
'Amul' marketer, Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) remained the top recruiter with 20 offers, while other cooperatives and producer cooperatives collectively made 32 offers.
A total of 28 students took up offers made by NGOs, development agencies and CSR foundations. Organizations including UNICEF, Tata Trusts (FISE), Vedanta Foundation, Reliance Foundation, BAIF Development Research Foundation, BRLPS – JEEVIKA, Precision Agriculture for Development, Responsible Mica Initiative, REHWA Society, and Access Livelihoods Consulting (ALC) recruited through the campus placements.
Other leading recruiters included banking, finance, and insurance companies such as Fullerton, Vivriti Capital, Northern Arc, Caspian Impact Investments, ICICI Prudential, Bharati AXA, Reliance General Insurance along with several small finance banks.