The combined placements for the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade’s (IIFT) Delhi and Kolkata campuses concluded with 161 students of MBA (International Business) 2008-10 batch receiving jobs across 62 companies. Of the 164-strong batch, 114 students belonged to the Delhi campus and 60 to the Kolkata campus. Three students opted out of the placements.

The average salary for the batch was Rs 11.62 lakhs. IIFT’s placement advisor Prof Munish Bhargava confirmed that this average also factored in the international offers. While the institute has not officially released the domestic average salary, our calculations show that it is Rs 9.84 lakhs. The calculation is explained at the end of this story. In a response to a PaGaLGuY email questionnaire, IIFT claims the domestic average salary to be Rs 8.94 lakhs.

The highest international salary of US$ 150,000 was offered by Olam International to three students (Olam recruits tend to be given job locations in south-east Asian or African countries, so the equivalent lifestyle conversion parity will apply). The domestic highest salary claimed by IIFT was Rs 13.08 lakhs. (Added later: the average salary for lateral placements (including international lateral offers) was Rs 14,05,157 per annum, according to a piece of official communication from IIFT to a 2010-12 admit).

A total of 30 students accepted pre-placement offers from companies such as the Business Consulting division of Cognizant, Mahindra & Mahindra, Johnson & Johnson Medical Systems, Tata Steel, Reckitt Benckiser, Colgate Palmolive, Essar, Tata Motors, Louis Dreyfus, ICICI Securities and Wipro.

Apart from Olam International, the international recruiters included Triton Group, Sudima International, Punj Lloyd and Wilson International with more companies confirming their interest from the Middle East and Hongkong, according to the IIFT press release.

Companies from the Trade, IT and IT consulting sector together took 44% of the batch.

Job profiles ranged from Sales and Marketing and Operations to those in IT and IT consulting, Trading and Finance.

“Traditional recruiters such as Louis Dreyfus, Nomura Holdings, Tata Motors, Business Consulting division of Cognizant, KPIT Cummins, Tata Steel, TCS, Wipro, Colgate Palmolive, Reckitt Benckiser, Mahindra & Mahindra, Essar, Bertling Logistics, Bharti Airtel, ITC, HT Media, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Titan, Yes Bank, Eli Lilly, Maersk, Britannia, Infosys and Cargill India were back on campus,” said the IIFT press release.

Amazan Agro, Daimler India, ONGC, Johnson & Johnson Medical Systems, Religare, Tata International, Jaypee Capital, ICICI Securities, Cairn Energy, SBI Capital, Gati, GE Corporation, MARG Group, Interglobe and Vistasoft recruited for the first time from IIFT.

IIFT’s domestic average salary for 2010

Arriving at IIFT’s domestic average salary for 2010 is not tough. In a placement report PDF available on the institute’s website (or downloadable from the PaGaLGuY servers here), the institute claims an average international salary of US$ 60,000 (shared among 17 students). Doing the math by deducting the international component from the overall average salary with a US$ exchange rate of Rs 45 makes the domestic average salary equal to Rs 9.84 lakhs, a good 1.78 lakhs below the overall average salary of Rs 11.62 lakhs.

Removing the three Olam International offers from the international average salary, the 14 remaining students with international offers received an average salary of about US$ 40,000.

IIFT’s response 1: “The data taken by you for computation of average domestic salary is not the most recent one. If you take the correct number of students (161 as three students had opted out), updated average international salary (USD 73,298/- p.a.) and the correct exchange parity rate, the domestic average salary will come to Rs. 8.94 lacs per annum as stated by us and not Rs. 9.84 lacs per annum as computed by you.“

This is in direct contradiction to Mr Bhargava’s statement to me over phone two days ago, when he insisted that the only updated information was the change in overall average from Rs 11.54 lakh to Rs 11.62 lakh and no other figure had been updated. The above updated information has materialized only after I pointed out the inconsistency in their numbers.

IIFT further added, “We are still in the process of receiving the appointment letters for this year from various companies and as such the data may again change; accordingly the figures would be incorporated on our website.”

IIFT’s 2009 and 2010 reported salaries don’t add up

In the 2010 placement report, IIFT claims that the average salary increased 53% to Rs 11.54 lakhs over the 2009 figure. This means that IIFT’s average salary in the previous year must have been Rs 7.54 lakhs. This is mentioned correctly in the 2009 placement report on IIFT’s own website. However in the media press releases (this, this and this) back in 2009, one observes IIFT claiming the 2009 average salary as Rs 8.09 lakhs. We at PaGaLGuY too had received the same press release. What really was the average salary for IIFT in 2009? The issue though bygone, is important because by projecting to have crossed the psychological barrier of Rs 8 lakh, IIFT stood to have gained critical marketing advantage over its competition during admissions in an year of crisis. We asked the placement advisor Prof Bhargava to explain why this might have happened, but he claimed to have never heard of the Rs 8.09 lakh figure. Efforts to get in touch with the student media coordinator on phone or email were in vain.

IIFT’s response 2: “The initial average salary for the year 2009 reported as Rs. 8.09 lacs per annum is based on data indicated by the recruiters at the time of the placement process whereas the average salary of Rs. 7.55 lacs per annum given in the website is based on actual computation done after receipt of appointment letters.”