pune placements in top colleges have increased by at least 15 this year compared to the number of recruitments in the same period last yearwhen compared to last year a major difference is a programming test being conducted by bulk recruiters for students during placement interviews till last year recruiters would just carry out an aptitude test followed by the technical round and personal interviews software giant microsoft broke its own record of rs 37 lakh per annum by offering rs 39 lakh per annum to five students from college of engineering pune coep two each from cummins college of engineering for women and the army institute of technology placement season in the city colleges started in august and will continue till may however all major companies have recruited students by december microsoft has hired five students as compared to three last year we can attribute the increase to a change in dollar value microsoft offers indian rupees and 50000 as a stock option so when the value of the dollar went up the amount offered increased alongside said uttam chaskar training and placements officer at coepthe banking sector core it companies and product development firms had an increased presence this year compared to last year many companies have offered rs 30 lakh or more per annum the others have also done well even in mechanical engineering and other branches placements have been good mercedes benz has picked up 11 students compared to the 34 they hire every year in computer science and information technology more than 90 have been placed so far till now about 65 students have been placed overall from coep chaskar addedshitalkumar rawandale a training and placements officer at pimpri chinchwad college of engineering said the highest one of their students was offered was rs 23 lakh per annum by amazon earlier the average pay package was rs 35 per annum now it has increased to rs 4 lakh per annum we have seen a 20 jump in recruitments this year new companies have hired students while old companies too are offering a higher number of positions said rawandaleproduct development companies have also recruited more students this year said rawandale students also prefer product development companies as they get better exposure and the valuable experience of developing something this year one major change was that programming tests were made compulsory earlier bulk recruiters would hold an aptitude test and then a technical round but now they are conducting a written programming test as well said rawandaleabout 100 students have been offered packages above rs 10 lakh per annum last year that number stood at 67 at cummins the salaries offered by both core it and other companies have increased our average has gone up from rs 5 lakh per annum to rs 6 lakh said rohini mulay training and placements officer at cummins college of engineering for women mulay further said their alumni have contributed in a big way to help improve the placements percentage our