With high paying jobs and multiple offers to choose from, students here have every reason to believe that global recession has receded from the premier institute.

Twelve days into the placement process, close to 350 students have been placed with over 55 companies already having approached the institute. “As many as 338 students have so far been placed and about 55 companies have recruited students. The number of companies is expected to go well over 200 this year,” said Sunil Srivastava, placement head at IIT-Kharagpur.

Compared to last year, the students are happy as they have more options to choose from and the pay package is also high, said Srivastava.

Barclays Capital has so far made the highest offer of Rs 22 lakh per annum for which it has selected 11 students. Other high paying companies that have visited the campus include Hindustan Unilever (offered Rs 15 lakh per annum), IBM (offered Rs 14 lakh per annum) and Deutsche Bank (Rs 12 lakh per annum).

A maximum number of students (21) have been recruited by Oracle.

Other companies to have made a beeline at the institute include Jaypee Capital, Morgan Stanley, Nomura Securities, Microsoft, IBM and Yahoo among others. Companies in the core sector that have visited the institute include Power Grid, Coal India and Indian Oil Corporation.

Interestingly, the highest salaries offered last year did not cross the Rs 15 lakh per annum mark.