CHENNAI: This year’s placements at IIT-Madras will see first-time participants like Apple Inc and Unique Identification Authority of India ( UIDAI ) in the recruitment process that is scheduled to begin on December 1.Nearly 15% of the registered companies are first-time companies. The other first-time companies which have registered for the first phase of placements are UBS AG, Nasdaq Stock Market, Alvarez and Marsal India Pvt Ltd, Country Garden, Halma India Pvt Ltd, Rubrik and Sekisui Chemical.The campus is also seeing a jump in the number of companies visiting the institute this year. A total of 270 companies have registered so far for more than 400 job profiles, compared to 250 companies last year (2016-17) for the same number of job profiles.The first phase of campus recruitment for 2017-18 will be held between December 1 and 10 with a break of one day (December 5) in between.About 43% of the recruiters are from core engineering / R & D sector, 25% from finance / analytics / consulting sectors, and 32% from the IT sector. The Institute will host more than 50 startups this year.Traditional recruiters such as Microsoft, Samsung R and D, Goldman Sachs, Eaton, Schlumberger, Mahindra, Intel, Bajaj, EXL, Citi, Larsen and Toubro are coming to IIT-Madras for recruitment this year as well. As many as 19 companies have advertised international profiles, most of which are for positions in Asian countries such as Japan, Singapore and Taiwan, along with the US.The institute has already recorded a 56% increase in the pre-placement offers (PPOs), which come from internships. As many as 114 PPOs were received this year by IIT-Madras students as against 73 in the previous year.Manu Santhanam, advisor, training and placement, IIT Madras, said, “Our team of students and the staff at the IIT-Madras Placement Office have worked hard to bring in a large number of recruiters to the campus, and this placement season looks promising. We have already seen a major jump in the number of PPOs, so we are hoping that the success translates into the placements too.”More than 1,100 students have registered for placements across different study streams and departments. The number is expected to increase, as more research scholars become eligible (this happens as and when they achieve a specific target in their research programme).Around 35 students have opted for deferred placements as they are either pursuing startup ventures or planning to apply for higher studies.To reduce the stress faced by the students in the early phase of the process, IIT-Madras has done away with the ‘Graveyard Slot,’ which begins in the early hours of day one, usually from midnight to 6am.