TOP PACKAGES UP BY A THIRD AT JBIMS PLACEMENTS

The highest salaries offered to students of the masters programme at Jamnalal Bajaj Institute of Management Studies (JBIMS) has gone up substantially. The final placement report for Masters in Management Studies (MMS) students, released on Tuesday, said that and the highest offer made to a student stands at Rs34.3 lakhs per annum, compared to Rs26 Lakh last year.

A statement released by the institute further states that the average salary offered to a student stands at Rs18.76 lakhs per annum, up from Rs18.3 lakh in 2016. “A mix of regulars and firsttime recruiters has given us brilliant results in placements this year. A total of 68 pre-placement offers (PPOS) were awarded to students across sectors,” said Stephen D’silva, placement co-ordinator for the institute.

Some of the companies offering PPOS included Abbott, Accenture Strategy, Avendus Capital, Barclays, Citibank, Danone, Future Group, Standard Chartered, etc. The largest chunk of the current batch was picked by companies from the Banking Financial Services and Insurance (BFSI) sector with 43% students being placed. Companies that visited the campus included Aditya Birla Financial Services, Axis Securities, Bank of America Merrill Lynch, HDFC Bank, IDBI Bank, etc. The consulting domain too saw a rise of 9% in the number of students recruited this year.

“Companies from sectors like technology, advertising and media, e-commerce offered lucrative roles. We were very excited with the profiles of many firsttime recruiters which included Capgemini, Honeywell Technologies, Tata Strategic Group, Tech Mahindra, etc,” said another member from the placement committee. A total of 77 companies came on campus this year to offer jobs and almost the entire

Local residents, who celebrated Mahashivratri and threw garbage last week on a land in Navi Mumbai, where a patch of mangroves had allegedly been destroyed recently, were made to clean it up by the state mangrove cell. Also, they said the locals had permission and they will not take any action against them. The celebrations were attended by Navi Mumbai mayor Sudhakar Sonawane.

HT had reported on February 22 that an NGO had complained about destruction of mangroves in Nerul. On February 24, around 50 people from the Koli community were seen celebrating a festival at the site, a violation of Bombay HC rules that forbid destruction of wetland vegetation.

On Monday, state mangrove cell officers ensured locals cleaned up the area. “The locals have been celebrating Mahashiv verbal permission had been given by our range forest officer but since the RFO was on leave, the department was not aware of it,” said Makarand Ghodke, assistant conservator of forest, Mumbai Mangrove Conservation Unit. “We are not taking any action against the locals as the festival is celebrated only once a year and no mangroves were destroyed ” cell, 1,471 hectare of mangroves falls under government owned land in Navi Mumbai, which are identified as protected forest areas. Noting the PIL filed by Bombay Environment Action Group — an NGO in Mumbai — in 2005, the Bombay HC had banned the destruction of state-wide mangroves and construction within 50m of them After Vana banned all reclamation and construction on wetlands in 2014.

“We intend to declare this area as ‘reserved’ forest but as of now it is under the ‘protected’ status and we cannot take away the rights of the locals,” said Ghodke.

Meanwhile, environmentalists also supported the locals since mangroves had not been destroyed and the site restored man Dev Mandir exists at the site for many years and the walkway is cleared of shrubs, weeds and wild grass that has come up during the monsoon. No mangroves or wetlands exist on the pathway,” said Stalin D, NGO Vanashakti.

“The fishermen have been supportive in conservation of mangroves and they have even abandoned the existing aquaculture ponds to be transformed into mangrove forests. However, gates need to be installed at the entrance to the site to avoid unauthorised debris dumping.”

The complainants Resqink Association for Wildlife Welfare said they have nothing against the religious groups. “We pointed out that structures had cropped up within mangroves, which is a violation of Coastal Regulation Zone 1 and HC rules,” said Pawan Sharma, president, RAWW.

“It was the duty of the mangrove cell to take action, which they have not and this is disap