India - PSUs wooing B-School Grads

Dheeraj Tiwari

NEW DELHI: While private sector companies are cutting extra flab to cope with economic slowdown, the government is chalking out an attractive
package for B-school students to join public sector undertakings (PSUs). The department of public enterprises (DPE) will soon unveil an internship scheme to attract talent from BSchools. The exercise is also aimed at familiarising these students with the work culture in the government owned companies.

The DPE will soon invite applications from students in B-schools, post graduate and research students and those pursuing chartered accountancy. The internship period will require the students to work within the different departments of the nodal agency, DPE and various PSUs. Recently, Steel Authority of India (SAIL) had inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with IIM-Ahmedabad to meet its human resource requirements in wake of its modernisation and expansion programme.

“There is a vast talent pool in our top colleges who are reluctant to join PSUs because they feel that PSUs don’t offer competitive pay packages and challenging work atmosphere. The students who will join us for the internship period will have a better knowledge of the working of the government owned companies and thus allay the misconception about them,” said a senior official in the department of public enterprises.

The DPE will be soon contacting the top B-Schools including the IIMs and associations like the Institute of Cost and Work Accountants of India (ICWAI) for sending a list of the students who are interested to work with the nodal agency. The interns will be allocated to the various departments and PSUs as per their preferences. “The interns will be fully involved with the functioning of the public enterprises . They’ll be given exposure in process of public enterprises survey, finalisation of MoU signed between different PSUs and their administrative ministries and other functions of the department,” the official said.