NEW DELHI: IITs are keeping a sharp eye on companies flouting placement guidelines even as the war for talent at IITs begins on Tuesday amid rising concerns over some top rung companies taking to off-campus placements. Under the umbrella of All IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), older IITs including Delhi, Bombay, Madras, Roorkee, Guwahati, Kharagpur, and Kanpur, will jointly take a strict stand against any recruiter found flouting placement guidelines or indulging in misconduct. “AIPC ensures that companies should not be able to divide and rule,” said Babu Vishwanathan, professor-in-charge for placement and training at IIT Madras. “If any of the company is rejected by one of the IITs all must stand together, otherwise the company will take undue advantage. If it is IIT Kanpur today it could be IIT Madras tomorrow,” he said. A bigger concern for IITs, however, is the increasing tendency among top recruiters to follow an offcampus placement strategy, some placement officials said. “We are concerned as more and more companies like McKinsey, Google and Goldman Sachs are either completely or partially going off the campus,” said a professor at IIT Madras placement cell who requested not to be named. As of now, Goldman Sachs and Google conduct online tests for students through the IIT placement cells. But placement officials fear that gradually the hiring would shift to online, nulling the role of the placement cells. A campus recruiter at a major management consulting firm said it is taking more of their interview process online as it is not possible for them to reach all the IITs on one day. McKinsey, which has been one of the most preferred campus recruiters, is skipping the campus placement process at the IITs this year and is instead hiring graduates directly through its alumni network, website and social media. Aprofessor at IIT Indore, who did not want to be named, said that many companies soon could follow the McKinsey model and may over a few years take the hiring offcampus. “Big stalwarts at campus placement seem to be ironing out the chink at the moment (with Google and Goldman Sachs partly going online with their tests). We are keeping a close watch as we want the placement process to go smoothly,” said the professor. “A vacuum is being created with Day 1 companies moving either off-campus or adopting PPO (pre-placement offer) route,” the faculty member said, but added, “We see this gap is being slowly filled up by startups offering hefty packages.” TV Mohandas Pai, chairman of Manipal Global Education and board member at Infosys, said IITs should adopt a hands-off approach on placements. “The students should vote, maybe under the guidance of the faculty, to decide on who should come to the campus. Faculty should no way intervene or restrict choices of students,” he said. NP Padhy, IIT Roorkee professor-in-charge of placement, would not agree. “The placement problem cannot be resolved by the students as they are not accountable,” he said. Students are divided on the issue. A student representative of IIT Kharagpur said startups are still a favourite of most students. “But placements will be difficult for the students to handle as we all struggle with academics,” he said. Startups, however, have had some issues at IIT placements. Zomato has been blacklisted from IIT campuses for a year because its founder Deepinder Goyal lashed out at the placement procedure after IIT Delhi denied his firm a Day 1 slot in last year’s placement.