Bangalore: Interns from the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B) were up for grabs for summer placements by global firms, especially from the financial sector, spiking fears of global meltdown impacting top Indian business schools.

In spite of doom and gloom, 110 firms flocked to the IIM-B campus last week to offer summer placements to all the 268 students of the first year of the two-year post-graduate programme in management (PGP).

The flagship programme is designed to enable students acquire skills and capabilities that will enable them to reach global positions in management.

"Even when the chips are down, we are upbeat about the prospects of our students making it big in the world of management," IIM-B placements director Sourav Mukherji told sources on Monday.

As against 65 firms in the previous academic year, 110 companies, including 56 new firms, came calling to take the B-school students on 10-12 weeks' internship in the summer of 2009.

Of the total 268 students, 121 (45 percent) were placed on the very first day (slot zero), which is the highest among the IIMs, though it was nine percent less than the previous year at IIM-B.

"Times are hard. In spite of these tough conditions, we have not seen any dip in demand for our students from global firms, including finance and consulting," Mukherji asserted.

Allaying fears of global meltdown adversely affecting summer placements, investment banks snapped up 43 percent of the students in slot zero, followed by consulting 21 percent, general management 16 percent, private equity eight percent, marketing seven percent and financial services 5 percent.

"International offers continue to remain strong at investment banks. Our students chose to intern abroad for learning experience in challenging market conditions. Though market situation is common to all business schools the world over, the quality of our students drove these firms to pick more from here than other IIMs," Mukherji claimed.

Unlike 105 students in the previous year, only 85 opted for internship abroad this academic year. About 10 students preferred to intern in India-based firms.

Interestingly, women account for 18 percent (48-49) of the total students. Of them (women), 46 percent were placed in slot zero, 25 percent of all women chose investment banking and foreign locations and 21 percent preferred consulting.

Among the top recruiters representing global consulting firms, investment banks and marketing firms were Goldman Sachs, McKinsey & Co, KPMG, Morgan Stanley, HSBC, Boston Consulting group (BCG), Bain & Co, Booze & Co, A.T. Kearney, Arthur D. Little, Oliver Wyman, Deloitte and Pricewaterhouse Cooper (PwC).

From the Gulf region, Bank Muscat has grabbed five students for investment banking profile. McKinsey, BCG and Bain hired the largest number of interns. UAE Exchange also offered positions in Dubai and Middle East.

"About 24 percent of the first-year batch accepted a position in a consulting career in view of the demand for multi-functional skills, cutting across finance, strategy and marketing. The percentage is the highest across IIMs, testifying to the pedigree of our students," Mukherji pointed out.

Among the Indian firms making beeline to offer internships were Wipro Consulting, ICICI Bank, Mahindra & Mahindra, Biocon, iGate and HT Media. IANS