Flipkart won’t be among the first ones to hire at IITs, may lose privilege after fallout with IIM-A

Indian e-commerce giant Flipkart’s decision to defer joining dates of IIM-A recruits is going to cost the marketplace dearly. Now, the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) may take away 'Day One' status in campus placements from Flipkart.

Reportedly, Flipkart won’t be the first one to hire at IITs and may be stripped of Day One slot.

READ ALSO: Read the Curt email IIM-A sent Flipkart about bad hiring policies

The All-IITs Placement Committee (AIPC), comprising placement cell heads across all IITs, is scheduled to meet next week to take a final decision.

"Flipkart's Day One slot at IITs will be affected for sure. Our next AIPC meeting was scheduled for October, but we are planning to have a video conference in the next few days to decide on how to sort out the problem," an AIPC member told ET.

The ‘Day One’ slot in IITs is generally reserved for the most reputed companies such as Google and Microsoft.

READ ALSO: Flipkart calls deferring joining dates of campus recruits "a tough decision but necessary"

Before the crosshairs, Flipkart got the ‘Day One’ slot at majority of the IITs.

"We had been kept in the dark till just a few days ago. Now it means forced unemployment for six months for students who've been hired by Flipkart," a peeved IIT-Bombay student told ET.

"We are looking to rethink our strategy about this entire space as a whole. We are seeing more interest in big MNCs and more stable companies," the placement chairperson of an older IIT to ET.

Apart from IITs, other business schools may also take a tough stand on Flipkart.

"The decision to defer joining for 6 months has been taken after due evaluation of all possibilities and keeping in mind the timelines to complete the organisational restructuring at Flipkart. We are committed and absolutely confident of having all our trainees on board in December 2016," Flipkart had clarified.