Across twenty-three IITs, more than a hundred and fifty job offers to the graduating batch went unhonoured in twelve months. A handful of firms accounted for most of them — one large software company alone withdrew roughly forty offers across campuses; several startups pulled back ten to fifteen each.
The institutes responded collectively. The All India Placement Committee imposed a two-year period of “non-cooperation” — the term chosen, pointedly, over “blacklisting” — barring the twenty-two firms from campus recruitment for the next two seasons. Firms were to be formally notified by the end of September.
Last year, ten or eleven companies drew warnings. This year, twenty-two. The timing made it worse for students: some offers were confirmed in December and not reversed until May, after the best recruiters had finished hiring for the year.