Hyderabad, Dec 9 : Amid the overall gloomy financial outlook, coupled with massive layoffs all over, campus placements at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IITH), are progressing at a brisk pace. IITH has reported 508 offers, which includes 54 international, received from 144 companies during Phase-1 of campus placements held between December 1-7. The entire recruitment process was held in hybrid mode. A total of more than 700 students have registered for placements across departments this year, IITH officials stated on Friday. The highest package is Rs 63.78 lakh, and the average package is Rs 19.49 lakh for the ongoing phase-1 placements. The company Blend 360 has released the highest number of offers, IITH stated. For Phase-1 of placements, a total of 13 International companies have registered, compared with about 12 International companies in Phase 1 and 2 of 2021-22. In addition, 54 International offers were made in Phase I, which is higher than the previous year's international offers of 46 offers in both Phase 1 & 2. The first graduating batch of B.Tech in the AI department at IITH has seen an 82 per cent placement within the 1st week of the placement process. The number of students opting for semester-long internships has also increased to 51 this year as compared to last year's 33. The prominent hiring sectors included core engineering, IT/Software, Finance and Consulting. A lot of India-based & International based startups and companies are among the top recruiters this year. Prof B.S. Murty, Director, IITH, said, "We believe in creating industry-ready talent with strong fundamentals, which certainly will fetch the dream jobs for the students. The various initiatives taken in the last two years, like Internship for B.Tech, Interdisciplinary M.Tech & so on, have made us achieve these numbers, and we will continuously innovate to make our students prepared to fulfil their dreams." Prof C. Krishna Mohan, Dean (Public & Corporate Relations), IITH, said, "Exceeding our own benchmark of the previous year in the given scenario reflects the dedicated and diligent efforts of the team, and we will ensure to have better performance in future." The current placement season at IITH started on a positive note, with 99 Pre-Placement Offers (PPO), as compared to 82 PPOs in the previous academic year. Phase-2 of Placements will begin in January 2023. In terms of international offers, for the current placement year 2022-23, IITH has received 50 international offers from seven companies across two countries, Japan & Taiwan. More international offers are expected in Phase 2. Speaking about Phase-1 of campus placements, Dr Abhinav Kumar, Faculty In-Charge (Office of Career Services), IITH, said, "The OCS student team has been continuously working along with our OCS staff to facilitate the placement and internship process at IITH. We are glad to see that the placement season at IITH has started on a positive note." /IANS