By Syed Zarir Hussain

Shillong, Mar 31 (IANS): All the 63 first-batch graduates of the youngest Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Meghalaya have got job offers, with an annual average salary of around Rs.10 lakhs and the highest pay package worth a whopping Rs.34 lakhs.

The mood is upbeat and one of utter jubilation at IIM Shillong (IIM-S).

"We are indeed very happy with the placements considering the fact that we are the youngest IIM and had to overcome several odds like logistical problems," Arijit Majumdar, the institute's corporate relations and external affairs head, told IANS.

Not many outside India's northeast probably know that there is an IIM in the Meghalaya capital named after former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It started in 2008 from a makeshift campus and still functions out of an interim facility.

Surrounded by pine trees, lush green lawns and mountains in the backdrop, the institute is functioning from the Mayurbhanj Complex -- the erstwhile summer palace of the kings of Mayurbhanj, Orissa.

"We may be logistically handicapped in terms of the distance and location, but we can boast that IIM Shillong is one of the best tech savvy campuses in the country and more than 35 percent of the recruiters offered jobs by way of video conferencing," Majumdar said.

In the just concluded placements, recruiters, both domestic and foreign, offered good pay packagaes to the young managers.

"The highest domestic offer annually was around Rs.1.8 million. A few of the students were offered jobs by foreign firms with salaries ranging from Rs.3.3 to 3.4 million," Majumdar said.

The recruiters include big names such as Deloitte, Infosys, Power Finance Corporation, Jumbo Electronics of Dubai, Hewlett Packard, Essar, Shipping Corporation, TELCON, Tata Motors and Escorts.

The job categories were varied - from IT to finance, human resources to marketing, besides other domains.

"I am thrilled to be part of the first batch and get a reasonably good job offer. The facilities or other logistic support may not be at par with the other IIMs in the country, but the faculty here is simply exceptional," said a graduate from Assam, requesting annonymity as his recruiter demands privacy.

The institute offers a two-year post- graduate programme in management (PGP) and plans to offer other courses like the fellow programme in management (FPM), management development programmes (MDPs) and research and consultancy, along with some short-term certificate courses.

"Our goal is to achieve excellence in the field of managerial education, training and research. Beginning with the meticulous short-listing of candidates till the finalizing of electives for the students to specialize in, there is just one word to describe the methodology here - rigour," Ashoke K. Dutta, director of IIM-S, said.

"The 63-strong student force, an army of corporate generals, has been trained under 'eight day' weeks, in cutting edge finance and economics, as well as on sustainability and governance," Dutta added with pride.

The Meghalaya government has allotted a 120-acre plot on which work is under way for a state-of-the-art academic-cum-residential campus.