MUMBAI | NEW DELHI: More than 50 companies have lined up to offer jobs but there's no one left in line! That's the predicament Kanwal Kapil found himself in last weekend, just two-and-a half days after summer placements began at Gurgaon's Management Development Institute."Companies have been so upbeat on hiring that this was waiting to happen," said Kapil, in charge of placements at the business school "By noon on the third day, all our students had been placed. For the human resource programme, it was over on the first day itself. We had to send back the companies slotted over the next couple of days."A similar scenario is playing out at other leading business schools.These include the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Kozhikode, XLRI Jamshedpur and the Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT) in Delhi as recruiters, bullish about business prospects, have rushed to snap up the best interns.Leading the rush are investment banks, ecommerce companies and consumer goods makers, pointing to strong optimism about the chances of a growth revival with India seen maintaining its position as the world's fastest-growing major economy. With the surge in offers, placements have closed in record time -- between three and seven days.Along with this, stipends have also soared — by 20-50%. At the top end, JP Morgan Chase is paying as much as Rs 5 lakh at XLRI Jamshedpur for a two-month internship. Boston Consulting Group and Reckitt Benckiser are paying Rs 3 lakh each at IIM-Kozhikode and MDI Gurgaon, respectively. Morgan Stanley is paying Rs 4 lakh at Faculty of Management Studies (FMS) Delhi. At IIFT, average stipends are up 30% from last year."Most companies across sectors have hiked stipends," said Rajul Mangal, placement committee member at IIM-Kozhikode. Goldman Sachs and American Express have both increased stipends to Rs 2 lakh from Rs 1.5 lakh for two months, sources said. Hindustan Coca-Cola Beverages has raised it to Rs 1.5 lakh from Rs 75,000 and Tata Steel to Rs 1 lakh fromRs 50,000. L'Oreal is paying Rs 1.6 lakh, up from Rs 1.2 lakh, and Arvind Lifestyle is paying Rs 1 lakh versusRs 70,000 last year.Companies are also making more offers than last year. Microsoft, RPG, American Express, JP Morgan Chase and Deutsche Bank have all made 60-100% more offers at IIM-Kozhikode.Accenture Strategy hired 12 interns at FMS Delhi, the highest ever. Asian Paints has hired three times last year's numbers and Hindustan Unilever two-and-a-half times last year. "As our organisation scales up rapidly, and campus hiring grows in sync, summer placements are increasingly becoming our preferred hiring route. It's a win-win situation for both the student and the company as they can gauge each other. We will be making at least 30% more offers this time," said Suresh Subudhi, partner and director, BCG India. The top consulting firm has reached out to newer campuses such as MDI this year. Last year, about 80% of summer interns were offered pre-placement offers by the firm.First-year students, who get offers during these placements, intern with the respective companies next summer. Based on their performance during the internship, many are given pre-placement offers (PPOs), which amount to a job in hand before the start of final placements.The top offer so far across campuses is that by JP Morgan Chase at XLRI, a 40% jump over last year's highest. Accenture Strategy, Snapdeal HUL , Deutsche Bank, Vodafone and Tata Consultancy Services are among the top recruiters, said campuses.New recruiters on campuses included the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Shell, Ola Cabs and Quikr at XLRI; Anheuser-Busch InBev and Dr Reddy's at FMS Delhi; Edelweiss and Glenmark Pharma at MDI; and Marico and GSK Consumer at IIFT.IIFT got 12 international offers for internships this year, up from eight last year. International recruiters included the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development ( OECD )."A lot of companies also opened up new roles apart from their legacy roles in such domains as supply chain, leadership programmes, product/category management among others," said XLRI director E Abraham.Banking, consultancies and the ecommerce sector were among the most active on campus, though fast-moving consumer goods ( FMCG ) also held its own. MDI saw a 44% uptick in the number of finance roles, of which 55% were from investment banks. Consulting intake rose 1.5 times at XLRI while ecommerce and startups doubled hiring.Across campuses, in the ecommerce and startup space, those making offers included Amazon, Snapdeal, Hector Beverages, OYO Rooms, Homeland, Ziffi and Shop-Clues. However, several startups that were slotted on later days at MDI and elsewhere had to go back empty-handed as all students had got placed before their turn came.Other institutes, which follow a rolling process or are yet to start, are also upbeat. At Xavier Institute of Management (XIM) Bhubaneswar, average stipends have gone up and a larger chunk of the batch is already placed compared with the same time last year. TCS is the biggest recruiter so far with 17 offers.The Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research (WeSchool) is slated to start summer placements in early November but companies including Crisil and HUL have already started coming to the campus seeking candidates.