IIT Bombay bans nine firms from placements

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, (IIT-B) released a statement on Thursday saying it had blacklisted nine companies, including health care start-up Portea Medical, for delaying or revoking placement offers to students. However, sources in the placement cell in Mumbai said the number will rise to 25 firms that will be banned across all IITs.

IIT-Bombay bans 9 firms for revoking, delaying job offers

The Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay, (IIT-B) released a statement on Thursday saying it had blacklisted nine companies, including health care start-up Portea Medical, for delaying or revoking placement offers to students.

However, sources in the placement cell in Mumbai said the number will rise to 25 firms that will be banned across all IITs.

The state-run engineering college also blacklisted Peppertap, a hyperlocal grocery start-up. The company could not honour its commitments of hiring students after it announced that it was downing shutters in April.

Another company, LeGarde Burnett Group, was banned after it revoked an offer. IIT-B also found the company was “fake” with no proper office address, it said.

“We do a basic Google check of the company and its website and also activate our alumni network to get information about it, while doing our due-diligence. Unfortunately, because of the large numbers, some get missed out or information is not available. Here, one turned out to be fake,” said a source at the placement cell, who did not want to be named.

Meanwhile, the company Mera Hunar was found to have participated in placements under a different name and hired students for another start-up, which attracted the penal action of one year.

“For now, most companies are banned for a year. Depending on who they are the ban may extend to another year,” said the source.

IIT-B also blacklisted Chinese firm Johnson Electric from placements for one year. Others who faced action include GPSK and Cashcare Technologies, IndusInsight, and Houston-based LexInnova.

Talk of banning some start-ups started earlier this year, when Flipkart delayed the joining of students as it was reorganising its management structure.

But, reports indicated that the Bengaluru-based e-commerce company was trying to control its cash burn and wanted to delay big hires for a while. Another hyper-local grocery start-up turned away students from various colleges after it, too, realised that it was overstaffed.

Representatives at Protea Medical could not be reached for comment.