One year later, IITs revoke ban on startups

NEW DELHI: The Indian Institutes of Technology( I I Ts) on Wednesday announced that they were revoking a ban on 31 companies, most of them start ups, from participating in campus placements. The move comes a year after the companies were placed on the list.

The ban was enforced after the start-ups withdrew offers they had made to students at the IITs, leaving them in the lurch. Among the companies on the list were healthcare services provider Po rtea Medical, food-tech company Z om a to and online seller of babycare products, Hopscotch.

“As per the decision taken during the 23 rd AI PC( All-I IT placement committee) meeting at I IT Bombay ... the ban on companies blacklisted ...on Aug 14, 2016 is hereby revoked with immediate effect,” the IITs said in a joint statement.

Kaustubha Mohanty, coordinator of AIPC said there were three reasons the ban was revoked: one, some students want to work for some big startups in the list; two, the ban was for one year only; and three, new IITs could benefit from having more companies.