Rural-focused and agribusiness multinational giants Tolaram Group, Cargill, Godrej Agro, Kancor, ITC and Zuari Group joined the dairy and farmer cooperatives as top recruiters at the Institute of Rural Management-Anand (IRMA)'s final placements of 37th batch of Post Graduate programme in Rural Management (PGRM).
The three-day placements programme, held from February 12-17, saw a resurgence in corporate interest in the rural sector with the private sector offering record salaries, averaging at ₹12.17 lakh per annum against ₹10.57 lakh last year, stated an official statement.
Diversified conglomerate Afri Ventures, Archer Daniels Midland, and Mars International were some of the other corporate biggies that participated in the placements and made offers to the graduating batch, which has 171 students.
According to Pratik Modi, Placement Coordinator - IRMA, the institute maintained its tradition of 100 per cent placements since its inception in 1979. The maximum salary for the batch stood at ₹46.50 lakh and the minimum salary accepted was ₹3.50 lakh.
While 'Amul' marketer, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, remained the top recruiter by inducting 16 candidates. Other cooperatives and producers’ collectives recruited 30 candidates.
Global consulting leader KPMG recruited candidates for consulting roles, while several banks and financial institutions such as insurance companies and CSR foundations also made suitable picks.
A total of 16 students accepted offers from government and non-government development organisations such as BAIF Development Research Foundation, Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society, JEEVIKA, Kudumbashree, and Livolink Foundation (an arm of Tata Trusts) among others.
"This year’s placements evinced a discernible jump in the number of job offers compared to the previous year. As an indication of the increased engagement of business as well as development sector organisations with the rural sector, IRMA received 315 job offers from 114 recruiters for the batch. 18 students had received pre-placement Offers from various organisations," IRMA stated.
The median salary from the development sector, with organisations such as NGOs, cooperatives, and government development agencies, witnessed remarkable increase with the average touching ₹9.42 lakh per annum as against ₹9.37 lakh last year.
The combined average salary for the current batch stood at ₹11.39 lakh per annum as against ₹10.22 lakh last year.