In order to quell the enormous uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 situation and address students’ doubts, the Practice School Division (PSD) and the Placement Unit (PU) hosted a joint webinar at 5PM on June 9. Faculty from both divisions answered questions that students had sent in via the Student Union (SU). This article contains a few key points summarized from the webinar, as well as a chronological description, edited for conciseness and clarity.

In an effort to assist pre-final year students in filling the semester preference form that closes tomorrow (June 10), the EPC accelerated the publishing of this article. While we did put in our best efforts to convey the information accurately and clearly, we are not liable for any accidental misrepresentations in the article that lead to incorrect/regretted decisions. In case you do spot any errors, please write to us at epc.bitsp@gmail.com.

Key Points – PS:

• For the first semester, PS-II will be from July 24 to December 21, 2020, and for the second semester, it will be from January 6 to June 18, 2021.
• The PSD aims to release the preference form with the list of stations in the fourth week of June and release the allotments in the first week of July.
• PS-II will have the ‘same quality and quantity’ of stations as previous years.
• Most PSs are likely to start online, and shift to offline once conditions permit. A few are planning to be completely online.
• PSD has built a learning management system for a seamless PS experience.
• There will be an online portal to ask queries to the PSD.
• Transfers between PS and TS will be handled on a case-by-case basis.
• The situation regarding PPOs from PS is still uncertain at the moment.
• Students are allowed seven days leave during their PS to attend placements.
• PS semester allotment is done on the basis of CGPA ‘campus wise’ and ‘discipline wise’.
• PS station allotment is done on the basis of a combination of CGPA and biodata. Specifically, for finance and management company allotments, an ‘off-shoot score’ is calculated, based on the courses that a student has completed. The off-shoot may act as an eligibility criterion, or as an allotment criterion.

Key Points – Placements:

• Recruiters are non-committal: there is a lack of clarity. Recruiters, both in India and abroad, have open positions but are in a ‘wait-and-watch’ mode.
• The PU is making all-out efforts (to be in touch with recruiters) and to ‘ensure that justice is done to each student’.
• The PU expects to have greater clarity by late July or the first week of August.
• A good number of IT companies are ‘willing to come’, but are uncertain on the timelines because a number of them are dependent on other factors—approvals, communication from overseas headquarters, etc. Hence, a lot of these companies are hesitant to commit to a timeline.
• When asked about whether students unplaced in the first semester (because of the poor economic landscape) will be allowed to shift to the second semester, Tabir Mishra said, ‘We’ll take a call…We’ll try to be as fair as possible to all the students and ensure that maximum opportunities are given.’
• Virtual interviews are possible, depending on the recruiter.
• The PU anticipates a 20-30% drop in PPOs from internships.
• Internship students are permitted to go for PS in the first semester.
• The PU will conduct online training activities.

Dr Anil Gaikwad:

Good evening, I am Anil Gaikwad, Associate Dean, Practice School Division, Pilani Campus, and I welcome you all to this session. Today, we have Prof. Gurunarayanan, Dean, WILPD and former Dean, PSD; Prof. Regalla, PSD; Prof. Annapoorna Gopal, Associate Dean (she operates out of Bangalore and takes care of planning division); Prof. K.R. Anupama, Associate Dean of Goa Campus; Prof. Sankar Ganesh, Associate Dean, PSD, Hyderabad Campus; colleagues of Pilani Campus Prof. Muthukumar and Prof. Murugesan, members of PSD. Today’s session will be divided into two parts. The first part will be taken by the PSD, and there’s a parallel session going on with the Placement Unit. They will be joining by the time we are done with the PSD. Now before we begin the session, we have already received the questions from the student body and have gone through them. We will try to address and answer those questions which are more relevant to PSD. To begin with, I would like to request Prof. Gurunarayanan to introduce Prof. Regalla, Dean, PSD and to set up the context of the session.

Prof. Gurunarayanan:

Welcome to this joint session conducted by the PSD and the PU. As Anil said, this is a back-to-back session which just got over for Hyderabad. The PU will be joining soon. The current situation has had a global impact and has brought on challenges which, as true BITSians, we know how to overcome and succeed, as we have done many times in the past. We are committed to keep the experience equally good for all the students who are likely to take up Practice School, either in the first semester, second semester, or both semesters. For example, some of you may be aware that a couple of months ago we began PS-I. This summer we had briefed the students who are going to be placed. Sometime in March the situation changed and we quickly adapted to it.

Within a month’s time, the PSD, with support from faculty, ensured that PS-I started on time as per the revised calendar. The experience till now, from what I hear from the students, has been going well. Therefore, that is the kind of commitment the PSD will give to the students. There are, of course, questions, clarifications, and a lack of clarity in the minds of students. Therefore students also wanted to understand. The General Secretary and the President approached us for a session and we requested the student body to collect the questions submitted to the PSD and the PU.  As Anil said, these questions are related to the PS and have been bracketed into different categories based on model, number of companies, and so on. The Associate Deans attending the meeting are going to deal with them.

Many of the questions are qualitative. We can provide quantitative answers to questions. There are certain places where there is adequate clarity for us, so we will be able to provide a clear outlook. However, there are some places where we are still looking for clarity and will ensure that it is shared with the students, as soon as we get more information. We will make sure that most of the questions are addressed.

There are some questions we cannot really answer, such as questions related to the impact of comprehensive exams on PS. There are certain things which are university-wide, and PSD alone cannot answer that; the university as a whole will answer it. However, PSD will ensure that the plan for comprehensive exams—whenever it is planned—does not impact Practice School. We cannot answer that because that is not decided by Practice School alone, it is decided by the university.

Questions that are outside the scope of this discussion have been taken out and repetitive questions were consolidated and put into brackets. However, there is a chatbox where you can submit your questions. If we miss out on something, we can go through that. This session is getting recorded and is not a one-day session. You will be able to reach out to the respective Associate Deans if there are additional questions. I also have Prof. Regalla here of the Mechanical Engineering department of Hyderabad Campus. He has taken over the PSD, and I would request him to now address the students.

Prof. Regalla:

I am the new Dean for the Practice School. In my 22 years at BITS, I have spent ten years at Pilani Campus, and the rest of the time I have been at Hyderabad Campus as a professor of Mechanical Engineering. Hence, I am confident that we will provide consistent and logical support to students for all the Practice School activities. Given the situation of COVID-19, which is global in nature, it is true that some of the questions, out of the totality of questions we collected from you, cannot be fully answered right now. However, we are confident that we will be able to provide you with the best in terms of smooth operation in the starting of and the continuation of Practice School. With those words, I will hand it over to Dr Anil.

Dr Anil Gaikwad:

Thank you, sir. I will be addressing some of the generic questions which are related to PS-II, which will be followed up by Prof. Annapoorna, who will be talking about the mode of PS-II. Then Prof. Muthukumar will address questions concerning allotment.

When it comes to generic queries, the question about PS-II dates keeps cropping up. For the first semester, the dates will be from July 24 to December 21, 2020 and for the second semester, it will be from January 6 to June 18, 2021. These will be the dates for PS-II in the academic year 2020-21. The second question students are asking is related to the release of the preference form, the tentative date of allotment, and the time by which the students will get to know what stations they are being allotted. We will possibly be releasing the preference form with the list of station preferences to students, sometime during the fourth week of June. The allotments will be out in the first week of July.

The third frequently asked question is related to transfers. Transfer requests are considered from PS to TS and from TS to PS. This happens before allotment, and in some cases, post allotment also. Today, we have cleared most of the requests we have received for transfers.  Now apart from those requests that we have cleared today, there are additional transfer requests which we have received from students. These will be considered on a case-by-case basis depending on the genuineness of the reason. The division will take a call in considering those. The fourth thing asked about is the semester allotment, especially in terms of the criteria to be used and the possibility to opt out. Semester allotment is purely based on the academic grade. Students usually ask if the PSD will push them forcefully to the first or second semester. Some students may be pushed to either of the semesters, depending on the position. If any student wants to opt out of the semester or switch the semester, those cases will be decided on a case-to-case basis, again based on the genuineness of the cases and availability of the semesters.

The fifth question pertains to students not being satisfied with their allotted stations or if they have any other clarifications which they need from the division. We will be addressing clarifications from the students through the online portal clarification management system, in which each student can log in and can enter their query, which will be received by the respective Associate Dean and subsequently addressed. This online portal will allow the student to view the status of the query and its clarification. The sixth point was with respect to leaves for attending the placement season. As per past practices, we will give a seven-day window for a student to attend the placement season. It will be up to the student whether they want to take all the seven days in one go or break it into smaller durations.

Students have also been asking about leaves to attend examinations. Those are specific requests and they can seek permission from the company or redirect their application to the Associate Dean, Instruction and Monitoring. Those leaves can be approved or considered on a case-by-case basis. The seventh category is related to individual specific requests. They can directly send those queries to me or the PSD. We will look into those queries. These are the seven generic questions which I thought I could address. I will now hand over to Prof. Annapoorna followed by Prof. Muthukumar for addressing the mode and queries with respect to the allotment.

Prof. Annapoorna:

I will be dealing with questions around stations, their numbers, the mode of PS-II that we are going to have, and the stipend and PPOs that may be offered. Amid the COVID outbreak, I am very happy to inform you that we would continue to have the same quality and quantity of seats. Quality referring to quality of projects and quantity referring to number of seats needed to run PS-II. We may have around 220 organisations participating this time, and about 60-70% of them would be companies who have participated last time also and have been long term partners with us.

For mode of operation, we have been engaging in detailed discussions with the station authorities about whether PS is going to be online, in-station, or hybrid. So far, most companies may start off with an online mode and subsequently move to an offline mode depending on the scenario. There are some stations who want to do it completely in online mode and very few which would prefer a completely offline mode. We will know about this before PS-II starts. This is something I am sure all of us appreciate that in the given circumstances. It is very difficult to commit to one specific mode for the organisation as well as for us. You can rest assured that we will be with you throughout the journey and ensure that it is comfortable, irrespective of the mode.

Moving on to questions regarding software support, we are happy to inform you that we have put a very structured learning management system in place specifically to address the needs of the PS course. My senior colleague, who is also the Associate Dean of Goa campus, Prof. Anupama is leading this initiative. The learning management system is ready and has facilities for continuous interactions with the station and mentors, online evaluations, and enhanced learning during the course. It will ensure a seamless PS-II learning experience, irrespective of the mode.

On the PPO front, it is going to be a little difficult for us to answer those questions right away due to the prevailing uncertainty. It is too early for us to comment on the PPOs for the upcoming PS-II semester. With that, I wish you all the best. Good luck. I would be more than willing to answer questions on the chat. I now hand it over to my colleague Dr Muthukumar who is a veteran in the PSD. He will be taking up responses to questions about allotments.

Prof. Muthukumar:

I will be presenting responses to questions on two fronts: semester allotments and station allotments. There are a couple of questions regarding semester allotments from dual degree students opting for double-semester PS. By default, students opting for double-semester PS will be provisionally allotted PS in both semesters. The tag which they associate with PS will not affect station allotment. They will be eligible to opt for stations pertaining to both their degrees; it will be their choice. Semester allotment is on the basis of CGPA. It is campus- and discipline-wise and dual degree students opting for one of the semesters will be pooled with the single degree students.

The company allotment process is mainly CGPA-based. Apart from this, there may be stations which might give projects which require expertise from a specific discipline. If the station domain aligns with the student’s degree, then obviously it might be more dependent on the nature of the project. But sometimes, the company requires certain expertise from the students. In that case, apart from CGPA, the biodata containing the specific courses which you have undergone will play a very crucial role in the allotment of the stations. So, it depends on the nature of the project and the skill sets and the coursework you have done, as well as the grades in those courses. Though the CGPA of the first semester is taken for the allotment, they will also give importance to the currently registered courses by assigning them 5 points in the offshoot score.

When we are allocating students to a very specific project which requires certain skills, we try to associate those skills to the coursework. So, the coursework will be given maximum importance in those cases. Primarily, the coursework and the associated off-shoot allotment is applicable more to finance, management, and IT stations; but it is also applicable for certain core disciplines depending on the nature of the project.

Will past internships be considered in the allotment algorithm?

Though it is difficult to quantify past or some informal internships, it may help in some way. It depends on the nature of the project the company expects. But it will not be in a quantified form like the off-shoot allotment.

How is the off-shoot allotment done in PS-II?

In general we have 300-odd stations listed in preference form. Some of the stations have very specific projects. A typical station may have 4-5 different projects with different requirements. Some of the projects may be open to all disciplines. Some may be specific to certain disciplines.

JP Morgan Services, UBS, and Goldman Sachs are some of the popular finance and management stations with off-shoot allotments. The company may specify the list of courses and it is also validated by the technical experts. Alternatively, there may be a pool of courses that we feel are mandatory that the students should have undergone to be eligible for the company. So, CGPA is by default for all students; the off-shoot score is specifically calculated and is company-specific. The typical courses that we use in the finance and management off-shoot are Business Analysis and Valuation, Derivatives and Risk Management, Financial Engineering, Financial Management, Fundamentals of Finance and Accounting, and Financial Risk Analysis and Management.

It might not be possible for all students to have undergone all the courses, but there are certain basic courses that are necessary. Depending on the project, we may be selecting from them. The grades of these courses will be taken into account. So, apart from the CGPA, we will also have a score known as the off-shoot score. It includes 5 points for the presently registered courses as well.

There may be two scenarios. In the first scenario, the CGPA becomes the allotment criterion and offshoot will be an eligibility criterion. This means that there is a set of courses in which the students should have knowledge and if they have adequate knowledge, then the companies are fine with it. In the other scenario, the company may say, though we have a CGPA cutoff of 6.5, but we want students with excellent skills in specific courses. Then, in that case the CGPA becomes an eligibility criteria and the off-shoot score will be used to allot the students.

We can also extend this to IT and FinTech companies. In some Finance stations, it is not only about the Finance electives but also IT. That is dependent on the nature of the projects. This pool of courses will also be available as a part of the problem bank while filling the preferences as and when available. The actual preference form will be released in the fourth week. So one week earlier, you must be in a position to see the list of companies to familiarise yourself with the project details.

If I am pursuing a minor, what additional weightage will I be given?

On the basis of the past data, we will be giving importance to courses which are directly done by students. This is irrespective of whether someone has done a minor or not. At the end of the day, it is the coursework that matters. If someone is pursuing a minor, but has not taken the adequate courses to get into those stations, it might not be possible. Courses are used for the off-shoot allotment. 

For companies which are giving their requirements, the off-shoot score recognises students who are very good in that domain. At the same time, finance and management are core disciplines for Economics students. So, Economics students need not compete with students outside the branch, because they would have done those courses by default.

In the semester preference form, there is a field for Professional interest. That is data that we collect for our planning purpose to find out the number of students interested in each domain. That is not going to affect the station preference. While giving the preference, you will also give the bio data. The biodata plays a crucial role.

Will a circuit branch student be allowed to take a PS-II station in Deep Learning or Machine Learning?

Possibly, yes. Provided that the required courses are done by the student in the IT domain, like ML and artificial intelligence. It all depends on the nature of the project, the company requirements, and whether the project is open to other disciplines. If it is open to all, then all students will be on the same platform. It may depend on the off-shoot scores and grace in that course.

If a student is eligible for early graduation and will be going for Sem-I PS, it will automatically be captured by the semester allotment process.

On Comprehensive Exams

They are being scheduled and the calendar is being prepared by the University. The PSD will try to ensure that it does not affect your PS. Right now, there is no way to guess how exams will be held. We will have to wait for more clarity on the issue.

We will try our level best to keep updating you.

What is the pattern to ensure the same exposure for core engineering disciplines, especially Mechanical-related stations?

We know there are doubts regarding this. It is difficult to give complete information about the scheduling of each core PS project’s activities in a work-from-home situation. We ensure that the scheduling for these projects will be done consistently with the work-from-home situation. Activities which can be done from home will be scheduled first.

Dr Anil Gaikwad:

For any specific questions you can reach out to me.

This marks the end of the session by the PSD. The next section, introduced by the Chief Placement Officer Balasubramanian Gurumurthy, concerns the information provided by Tabir Mishra, the Placement Manager. Across the three campuses, there were over 250 questions, which due to the paucity of time, were condensed and collated into three broad buckets.

Balasubramanian Gurumurthy:

We are a couple of months from kickstarting 2021 placements. There is absolute obscurity and ambiguity among recruiters. None of the recruiters want to make the first move and initiate or commit. No one is revealing whether they would like to come online or offline. But yes, recruiters in both India and abroad have positions and people want to hire. But everybody is in a wait-and-watch mode. No one knows what is going to happen in the next 24 hours, so no one wants to commit. The PU is making all efforts to ensure that justice is done to all students. We are trying to bring the best opportunities available in the market to the table.

I suggest that campus-specific sessions are held to give the details of what is happening with the market, where we stand, and the kinds of companies present. We will be in touch with all the students.

Bucket 1- Placement Scenario

1. How is COVID-19 affecting the placement scenario, and how is the Placement Unit dealing with the current situation?

A: The Placement Unit is in touch with all 250 recruiters university-wide. We have been trying to find out what exactly the plan is. For us, 2020 onboarding is obviously a challenge right now because many companies have delayed it. However, things are working out. For 2021, as Bala Sir has mentioned, we don’t have immediate clarity on that but we should get to know more by mid-July or the first week of August.

2. In a normal situation, IT placements are preferred during the 1^st semester but considering the current scenario, can we expect a somewhat evenly balanced IT placement in both semesters?

A: Clarification on the first point—IT companies are not specifically called in the first semester. This is a purely market-driven phenomenon. India is a very IT-driven economy, so the demand in this domain is very high. Companies are hungry for talent even when the semester placements get over. This makes it much easier to call them early because they are ready with their numbers, which may not necessarily be true for core companies. This is why we see more IT companies coming in the early part of the placement season and the core companies later.

As for the current scenario, a good number of IT companies are willing to come. But they are uncertain on the timelines because a number of them are dependent on other factors—approvals or communication from overseas headquarters, etc. This is why a lot of these companies are hesitant to commit to a timeline. But we hope to have a lot more clarity on this by the end of July or the first week of August.

3. Which semester’s placements will be affected more by the current scenario of the economy? Can you give a suggestion based on sector-wise differences? For example, which semester will be good for IT, Electronics, core and non-core placements?

A: This is a little difficult at this stage because of the same factors. The lockdown has just been lifted, the HR departments of companies are just getting back to business, and people are still collecting themselves. So we may have a delay of a month or two, but we are hopeful that things will pick up by mid-September or October. We should have more specific information by mid-August or so.

4. Will the placement cycle be shifted to a later month (like from December to February in IITs)?

A: This is a little difficult in BITS. The IITs do not have the PS system in their final year—which is one of the biggest advantages of being in BITS. However, the corollary is that the IITs have all their students available at one time. They can shift their semesters and have recruiters rearrange their cycles accordingly. This is still fair to all students because they are all available. In BITS, we give you an advantage by way of PS-II. But this also means that we are a little constrained with scheduling. Inevitably, we have to go by the recruiter’s convenience because we divide our placement season into two parts. For example, some Master’s students sit in Semester 1, some Bachelor’s students sit in Semester 1 and some in Semester 2, etc.

5. What would be the expected cut-off CGPAs and the expected placement cycle for Semester 1 and Semester 2?

A: Cut-off CGPAs are imposed by the recruiter, not the Placement Unit. The PU tries to lower that CGPA requirement as much as possible, but the recruiter dictates the final cut-off.

We cannot be clear, at this stage, about the expected placement cycles. Just like the comprehensive examinations, the college reopening date depends on a number of factors like government guidelines and how BITS is able to balance things. We will get more clarity with time, but it is difficult to comment right now.

6. If many companies do not come for hiring during the first semester due to COVID-19, will the students be given a chance to sit for placements in the second semester? Given the economic condition improves by then?

A: We will definitely take a call. We will try to be as fair as possible to all students and ensure that maximum opportunities are given. Again, let us see how the situation unfolds. It is not that we necessarily have an extremely pessimistic outlook for Semester 1 and a very optimistic outlook for Semester 2. That would be too simplistic. Lord willing, Semester 1 will be very vibrant and Semester 2 will also be very vibrant. Once things move forward, then we will take a call in everybody’s best interests considering logistical, academic, and other constraints.

7. Are virtual placement interviews possible?

A: Yes. However, this is the recruiter’s call. We will naturally be pushing for it as much as possible. Even in the worst-case scenario that the semester reopening is really delayed, we will see how exactly to go about this. But yes, virtual placement interviews are very much possible.

8. If the PSD forces down the low CG students, they will have to sit for placements in the first semester. Considering the fact that almost all companies in the first semester have higher CG cutoffs, how is PU planning to accommodate these students, if this scenario happens?

A: This is not a given. Number one, let PSD take a decision first. A number of you have highlighted this point. The PSD is aware of it and they will take the best possible decision. Secondly, if there are a lot of low-CG students in Semester 1, our pitching strategy will change accordingly. We WILL call in companies that accommodate lower-CG students. If we can do that for Semester 2, there is no reason why we cannot do that for the first semester, obviously, paying attention to how the COVID-19 situation unfolds.

9. How will the PPOs offered by companies be affected?

A: Summer internship PPOs will be affected. We are looking at about a 20-30% drop in offers. This drop may not necessarily translate to the number of full-time offers. It could go either way. Just because a company is unable to give offers right now does not mean that it cannot do that later on. Let us hold our horses, be patient and let’s see how things go forward. Hopefully, it will work out for the best.

Bucket 2- PS-Placement Related Queries

1. People who have secured an internship through campus, will they be allowed for PS-II in the first semester?

A: Yes, absolutely. Number one, it is not a question of being ‘allowed’ or ‘not allowed’ because the official BITS curriculum talks about Practice School. The summer internship program was started on the request of the students and the companies. So it is more of a question on whether you are eligible and available to do your PS. Then, the call will naturally be of the PSD.

2. How and when will the students who want to opt for a double PS sit for placements?

A: These systems have not changed. Traditionally, dual semester PS students sit for placements in the second semester. We advise you to do the same. Get the seven days leave approved obviously subject to the convenience of the PSD and your manager. In any case, why would a dual semester PS student want to sit for placements in semester one and jeopardize your chances of getting a PPO, knowing that a very high percentage of dual semester PS students do convert into a PPO? So stick to the same system, absolutely. There does not seem to be any reason to change.

3. I am opting for my PS in the second semester, can I sit for the placements in the second semester as well?

A: No. The rules have not changed. We might have gone virtual, but the rules remain absolutely the same—one semester for PS and one semester for placements. There is no change in that.

Bucket 3- General Guidance 

1. How will the pre-final year students be handling both exams/assignments of the previous semester as well as their PS/Placements at the same time as indicated by the Vice-Chancellor’s mail? This may have a negative impact on the job preparations for students in an already recession-hit market. How is the college deciding to tackle this issue?

A: The college tackled this issue by informing the students well in advance. I believe the first mail from the Vice-Chancellor was sent out on April 13 indicating the rough timeline for the final examinations. Being BITS students, we are confident that you are all bright and proactive enough to have prepared for your examinations accordingly and you will be able to handle the load of these simultaneous activities.

2. Can PU give proper guidelines about the job profiles offered in each semester, based on which students can make an informed decision of semester preference?

A: This already happens. Each campus releases placement season statistics over mail. For Pilani, we have PU Chronicles. It is widely circulated and widely available. We have already released Chronicles till 2018–19. For 2019–20, the statistics will be released. In case of any additional queries, please feel free to reach out to the Placement Office of your campus and have your doubts clarified.

3. Will any training activities be carried to prepare students for the upcoming season?

A: Yes, definitely. Each of the campus placement teams will be organising sessions. These sessions will probably be virtual for now. If anybody has any suggestions in this regard, we request you to get in touch with the campus placement teams—the Senior Placement Managers, the Assistant Placement Managers, or the student teams. We will be very happy to take those suggestions into account.

Just a final reiteration, I know all of you would have been very happy if we could have just told you, ‘Look, these are the companies that are coming—Semester 1 is like this, Semester 2 is like that’ but it is better for you to know the ground situation. We are confident of being able to give you a much clearer picture by mid-July or the beginning of August. Even under normal circumstances, the hiring scenario only becomes clear around mid-July. These are extraordinary times. We will be in touch with all of you and we look forward to having you all back on campus as soon as possible.

Balasubramanian Gurumurthy: 

To wind it up, my request to the students is—stay positive, stay optimistic, and do not lose heart, because all of us are sailing in the same boat. You guys are in the same boat as the IITians and NITians. We are all on the same side, we are all facing the music. All of us have a variety of problems, a variety of issues—of course, of varying magnitude. In these unprecedented and extraordinary times, it is equally important that we brush up our knowledge, get ready, polish ourselves and upskill and are ready to go into the field, whenever that happens. I believe it is not too far in the future. Especially in placements, there are two challenges. First is the batch of students that is graduating in 2020 and then the 2021 batch. We have to manage both and then strike a fine balance between both. The Placement Unit is under tremendous pressure at this time. We are all trying to ensure that the best possible course of action is taken—the right opportunities and placement possibilities are offered so the careers of the students can take off. We are working with that intention in mind.

My only advice to you would be to be optimistic, polish your skills, get ready and then be patient and more importantly, be flexible. During these times, it is very important how we carry ourselves—we cannot be particular, we cannot confine ourselves or be very rigid about our choices. Whatever comes our way, we have to take it up—we cannot be too choosy or picky or overly ambitious, so we have to be realistic. I wish all of you the best and I am quite hopeful about the year that is going to unfold. I am not cynical or pessimistic about how things are going to unfold because we have a fair assessment of things. As I am speaking to you, we know that we will be able to do justice to all of you.