It's the beginning of good time for the university graduates. The reason: All major corporate houses are on a big recruitment drive, offering impressive salary packages

Mumbai: Industry bigwigs and corporate heavyweights have been scurrying to get the best students for themselves. Naturally, salaries are headed north.

This year too, campus placements at Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) belonged to investment banking and consultancy firms. With the IITs barely four days into their final placements - which began on December 1 and will go on till December 15 - the institutes say, so far, they have received maximum number of offers from investment bankers and consultancy firms like McKinsey, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank and Meryll Lynch.

However, core engineering companies like Adobe, Google, Tata Motors, Maruti, Infosys, Wipro, UBS and Deloitte too figure prominently among regular recruiters' list. Oil companies like Shell and Schlumberger too have kept their faithfulness with the campuses.

On the salary front, the institutes expect around 10-12 per cent increase this year. Last year, the institutes drew dollar salaries from international companies. IIT Delhi lead the pack with Pimco, a US-based specialty fixed income manager, offering $100,000 per annum package to its B-Tech graduates.

At IIT Bombay and Kanpur, the highest offers were made for $92,000 per annum and $90,000 per annum by Mercer Oliver Wyman - a Boston-based financial consulting firm and Lime Group, a US-based financial and technology conglomerate, respectively.

Says a placement official from IIT Kanpur, "We are just four days into our placements and this year too, it is as exciting. We expect to see a 10-12 per cent increase in the salary figures."