MUMBAI: IIT Bombay’s latest annual report containing placement details for 2024–25 shows that of the 2,469 students registered and 2,040 participating, the institute saw 1,422 accepted offers, marking a dip of 3.5% from the previous year. Yet, even as hiring volumes softened, average and median salaries rose. The average CTC rose to Rs 26.45 lakh, while the median increased to Rs 20 lakh, indicating a tightening of hiring volumes but improved pay benchmarks. Pre-placement offers remained steady at 260. International offers, however, declined from 78 to 65, reflecting a more cautious global hiring climate.“The total number of accepted job offers was around 3.5% lower than last year. This slight decline can be attributed to a few companies extending fewer offers than in the previous season,” said the placement report of 2024-25. “Despite the decrease in the number of offers, both the average and median CTC have increased by approximately 10%.”A total of 1,272 students were placed during the first phase in December 2024, while 150 were placed in the second phase. In 2023–24, the institute recorded 2,414 registered students, of whom 1,979 participated, with 1,475 accepted offers from 364 companies. The average salary stood at Rs 23.5 lakh per annum and the median at Rs 17.92 lakh, with 78 international offers and 22 offers above Rs 1 crore.Salary-wise, of the 1,422 accepted offers, nearly half — 705 — were in the Rs 20 lakh and above bracket, pointing to a strong presence of premium recruiters on campus. When combined with offers in the Rs 16.75–20 lakh range, over 60% of all placements fall above Rs 16.75 lakh per annum..Below this band, the numbers taper gradually. Offers in the Rs 12–16.75 lakh range account for roughly a third of placements, forming the core of mid-tier hiring across sectors. In contrast, the lower salary bands are relatively thin — less than 13% of offers fall below Rs 12 lakh, and only a handful dip below Rs 8 lakh.A key trend is the consistent rise in placements for B.Tech programmes, which continued to “anchor” campus recruitment, said a senior faculty. For 2024–25, B.Tech placements are similar to last year’s levels, reinforcing their dominance in the placement ecosystem.Data from 2020–21 to 2024–25 shows that M.Tech placements have remained relatively volatile, peaking in 2021–22 at around 184 placements, before tapering off in subsequent years. After a dip to 178 in 2022–23 and a sharper fall to 152 in 2023–24, the latest cycle shows a partial recovery to 171 placements in 2024–25.However, the trend is more pronounced in the case of Ph.D. placements, which have seen a steady decline over the past three years. From a high of 523 placements in 2021–22, numbers dropped to 479 in 2022–23, further to 415 in 2023–24, and now to 367 in 2024–25. This marks a consistent downward trajectory.Institute officials and analysts attribute this divergence to changing career preferences among research scholars. A growing number of Ph.D. graduates are opting for postdoctoral positions, academic roles, or specialised research opportunities, rather than participating in campus placements.
