Despite tensions between the ministry of human resources and the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, big corporations have evinced strong interest in the current summer placement season that began on Wednesday.

Thirty-six students were placed with investment bankers on "Day Zero", the day traditionally reserved for foreign companies.

Goldman Sachs recruited 11 students this year against six last year, Lehman Brothers hired eight (six last year), Merrill Lynch six, Deutsche Bank three, UBS Warburg three, J P Morgan two, HSBC one and Morgan Stanley two.

Ironically, senior recruitment officials from these banks and from consultants A T Kearney, McKinsey, Boston Consulting Group, Capital One and Amex Strategic Group conducted interviews a few yards away from where IIM-A Society members were meeting to discuss the government's threat to supersede it if fee reductions were not implemented.

Against 178 post-graduate students placed last year (a 100 per cent record), 166 students are to be placed this year.

"With both the global and Indian economies showing strong signs of faster growth, we are upbeat about better placement offers this year," said Rekha Jain, chairperson of IIM-A's placement committee, on Thursday.

The first phase of placements is expected to be over in four phases. Day One, which is actually the second day of the process, will be held on Friday. The concluding day is Monday.

The institute is also expecting a substantial improvement in salary packages, according to Saikat Sengupta, spokesman for IIM-A's placement cell. Details of salary packages will be available in 12-14 days.

According to Sengupta, students expect better offers mainly from fast moving consumer goods giants as well as several infotech companies like Cognizant Technologies, which is known as one of the highest-paying Indian companies for IIM-A students.

Among the overseas companies, higher offers are expected from companies like Capital One, which recruited a student last year at a net salary of $82,000, the highest salary offered to any IIM student nationwide.