Entrepreneurial participants from the second batch of Post Graduate Programme in Management for Executives at the Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad, now have a back-up option in case their ventures do not take off as planned.

The PGPX committee has approved a proposal by the students wherein students who choose not to sit for placements this year can instead participate in the recruitment process next year.

The institute's Post Graduate Programme had announced the option last year. Four students from the programme are interested in starting on their own, of which, two have confirmed their unavailability for placements, which are set to begin in by January end.

Also, nearly 10-15 students have shown interest in joining start-up companies. The institute's placement council has been in touch with nearly 20 start-ups and at least four among them will be recruiting from the batch this year. Some names include Ahmedabad-based Electrotherm and Arshiya International.

"Since each of us has work experience of at least six to 10 years, positions offered are usually at the senior-level. Start-ups offer profiles like CEO, COO and head of region with attractive remunerations which has interested quite a few PGPX participants this year," said Raju Komaravolu, a PGPX student who had interned with a start-up recently.

While actual offers would only be made at the end of January, early negotiations show that the domestic offers could hit the range of Rs 25 lakhs (Rs 2.5 million) to Rs 75 lakhs (Rs 7.5 million) per annum. Last year, the highest domestic salary was Rs 60 lakhs (Rs 6 million), while the highest international salary was $250,000 per annum.

So far, it is the private equity firms and consultancies that have kept the salary mark high but students say that start-ups are expected to offer similar if not more lucrative offers this year.

Over 40 companies have confirmed dates or have already interviewed candidates. Companies are from consulting, IT, consumer goods, multi-business (Conglomerates), real estate, operations and infrastructure space.

Some of the recruiters that will participate in placements this year are McKinsey, Microsoft, GE, Shell, Booz Allen Hamilton, Arthur D'Little, ADA Group, ITC, RPG, Yes Bank [Get Quote], Infosys [Get Quote] and Tech Mahindra [Get Quote].