This year too, campus placements at the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) belonged to investment banking and consultancy firms. With the IITs barely four days into their final placements -- which began on December 1 and will go on till December 15 -- the institutes say, so far, they have received the maximum number of offers from investment bankers and consultancy firms like McKinsey, Lehman Brothers, Deutsche Bank and Meryll Lynch.

However, core engineering companies like Adobe, Google, Tata Motors [Get Quote], Maruti [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote], Wipro [Get Quote], UBS and Deloitte too figure prominently among regular recruiters' list. Oil companies like Shell and Schlumberger too have kept their faithfulness with the campuses.

On the salary front, the institutes expect around 10-12 per cent increase this year. Last year, the institutes drew dollar salaries from international companies. IIT Delhi led the pack with Pimco, a US-based specialty fixed income manager, offering $100,000 per annum packages to its B-Tech graduates.

At IIT Bombay and Kanpur, the highest offers were made for $92,000 per annum and $90,000 per annum by Mercer Oliver Wyman -- a Boston-based financial consulting firm and Lime Group, a US-based financial and technology conglomerate, respectively.

Says a placement official from IIT Kanpur, "We are just four days into our placements and this year too, it is as exciting. We expect to see a 10-12 per cent increase in the salary figures."

Placement officials at IIT Madras however, believe that the salary levels could remain the same as last year. "The weakening of dollar will have an effect on salaries and though the salary figures could be the same as last years, it would not amount to the same when converted in to rupees," said an official.

Last year, at IIT Madras, New York-based financial services major, Bloomberg was at the top of the heap with a $90,000 per annum salary package. IIT Madras expects around 250 companies to visit the campus this year.

At IIT Roorkee, 22 new firms have registered for placements, so far. Last year, oil services major, Schlumberger made the highest offer of Rs 34 lakh at IIT Roorkee.

While last year, international offers saw a 11-per cent increase and domestic offers rose anywhere between 20-100 per cent, the surprises for this year will be revealed when the country's premier technology institutes are done with their placements.