NEW DELHI: A job at one of India’s hottest unicorns or one at a public sector unit that’s been around forever? India’s top engineering schools are set to forego startup sparkle for state-owned stolidity when it comes to this year’s campus recruitments after many high profile enterprises reneged on or delayed job offers last year. Many also went out of business, leaving new recruits high and dry.The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) are keen to give public sector undertakings (PSUs) early placement slots this year, even Day 1, said people aware of the matter. That’s despite such firms offering much less by way of pay or stock options than private companies. Some schools plan to invite about 100 PSUs each with directors and faculty members reaching out to them to ensure they attend.The IITs are also trying to rope in the ministry of human resource development to persuade the so-called Maharatna and Navratna companies to participate in campus placement. These are large companies that have greater levels of independence when it comes to taking business and investment decisionsPSUs that are likely to be on the list include Oil and Natural Gas Corp, Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, NMDC and Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.“Until last year, we could not bring in PSUs and also many students were opting for startups,” said Debasis Deb, chairman of the career development centre at IIT Kharagpur. “Our experience with the startups was not all good last year. This year, we want to bring in PSUs in the first week itself so that students get a chance to opt for stable jobs rather than pick up lucrative offers in startups.”Several companies including Peppertap Stayzilla and Flipkart had either deferred or withdrawn offers made to students during the last IIT placement season.The All-IITs Placement Committee recently blacklisted 30 companies, including startups, that went back on job offers. State-run companies will be visiting IIT campuses after a gap of two years. The Madras High Court had barred PSUs from participating in campus recruitments in 2014 following a public interest litigation (PIL).The high court stayed the ban in December last year. Before the ban was imposed, PSUs typically visited IITs only in late January or February when most of the students with high scores had already been hired in December, when the process starts and the choicest companies are called.During the ban years, PSUs largely considered Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE) scores for recruiting engineers.ETspoke to faculty at six IITs that are ready to give early slots to PSUs. The IITs of Kharagpur, Roorkee, Bombay and Guwahati plan to offer them Day 1. Such companies provide rich work experience in core streams such as mechanical, chemical, aerospace and metallurgical engineering, besides stability. And, following bad experiences with startups, IITs such as Guwahati, Kharagpur, Roorkee and Delhi are telling students that this is a value that should be highly valued in a volatile environment. Kaustubha Mohanty, his counterpart at IIT Guwahati, echoed this sentiment.“We are leaving no stone unturned this year in inviting the PSUs. We are requesting them to come in the first week of December.”The PSUs offer annual salaries of about Rs 10 lakh on average, about one-third of what is generally offered by Day 1 companies. In boom years, Day 1 firms have even offered upwards of Rs 40-50 lakh for top candidates. Anishya Madan, industrial liaison officer at IIT Delhi’s training and placement cell, said state-owned companies make for a wide range of options.“It is not about the salaries alone, it is also about stability. We want students to get enough choice, especially in terms of working with core companies. With the ban lifted on PSUs coming to IITs, we are trying our best to give them a healthy mix from Day 1 itself,” Madan said.Student interest in such companies has naturally risen from almost nothing to about a third that are looking for such jobs. “These estimates are based on last year’s data from student application forms,” said a spokesperson at IIT Bombay’s placement cell.“This year too we are getting many queries from the students who are actually looking to work at PSUs.” At IIT Roorkee, most students are looking for such core companies, said training and placement head NP Padhy. Manu Santhanam, training and placement advisor at IIT Madras, said: “We have not had many PSUs visiting in the last few years. We are hoping this to change this year. We are trying to actively invite PSUs to come for campus recruitment.”