Placements 2004 at India's premier B-schools started at a very different juncture where the market touched 6000 after a hiatus of three years and global economy showed signs of recovery, but at the same time, the shadow of CAT paper scam and the ongoing tussle between IIMs & MHRD over the interference loomed large over it.

But at the end of placements 2004, none of the negative developments were able to impact the whole process and the Corporate world reaffirmed its faith in the brand IIM.

Placements 2004 signaled the recovery in the economy but not at the same pace as the way it happened in 2000. However, compared to 2000, the placements were more general and all sectors showed considerable improvement with Finance and Consulting staging a strong comeback, while IT was busy increasing bench count riding on the wave of global rebound.

Global corporate continued its faith in the Indian talent with as much as 123 overseas offers made at top 15 B-schools covered by Bt-CoolAvenues Survey. Maximum numbers of overseas offers were made at IIMB with 27 students getting overseas postings. IIMC, IIMA & ISB followed with 23, 21, and 20 offers respectively.

The star of placements 2004 was the new kid on the block ISB. ISB placed its first batch in year 2001, which was probably the toughest year the B-schools placements ever had, and faced considerable pressure. However, in year 2004 it demonstrated its ability. The highest USD offer in all B-Schools was made at ISB with a cool pay packet of USD 151,768. The highest Indian salary also went to ISB with a cheque of Rs. 20.55 lakh p.a.

However, the average salary at ISB was just Rs 9 lakh, which was considerably low, given the very high skews at the top end. This indicated that a large number of students at ISB were below Rs. 9 lakh bracket, which is a significant issue; given the fact that ISB's annual fee is Rs. 11 lakh approximately.

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