IIT-B blacklists 9 firms for revoking placements

Almost 25 students from the IIT-B have been hit because of this. Placement cell says most of these companies were start-ups and revoked their offers citing internal restructuring.

The Indian Institute of Technology Bombay has blacklisted nine companies, banning them from campus recruitment for a year, for revoking the placement offer given to its students. Unconfirmed reports say that 31 firms have been blacklisted nationally by the IITs.

Almost 25 students from the IIT-B have been hit. Among the companies blacklisted here were: LeGarde Burnett Group, GPSK, Johnson Electric China, Portea Medical, Peppertap, LexInnova, Mera Hunar, Cashcare Technologies, and IndusInsight.

The placement cell of the institute said most of these companies were start-ups and revoked their offers citing internal restructuring. “Most of the companies gave internal re-structuring or losses as the reason of either revoking the offer or deferring the joining dates. Most of them are the start-ups but still a few of them are well established firms,” a placement cell representative said.

From the nine companies, six revoked their offers. This includes online grocery start-up Peppertap, which is shutting down operations. LeGarde Burnett revoked the offer and was allegedly discovered to be a fake company, missing a proper office address. LexInnova and IndusInsight were blacklisted as they pushed back the joining date of students.

To help the aggrieved students, the representatives of the placement cell said that they had approached other companies, which were relevant to the profile of the candidates, and requested them to consider taking their interview. “Few students have already secured jobs and others have been provided internship opportunities,” the representatives said.

As of now there has been no legal action against the companies. Taking cognizance of the issue, the placement team has decided to conduct a background check of companies, including funding and other aspects, before allowing them to conduct campus recruitment.

Nationally, the placement panel for campus hiring across 23 IITs of the country have blacklisted 31 firms, mostly start-ups, due to several complaints against them, reports said.