DailyBrief: The two sides to the IIT-B placement failure; and is Byju Raveendran's net worth really zero?

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Market Watch

• Indian benchmark indices ended the day in the green with the Sensex up 350.81 points at 74,227.63 and the Nifty up 80 points at 22,514.70.
• Nifty IT and Nifty Private Bank made the biggest gains while Nifty PSU Bank and Nifty Oil & Gas logged the biggest losses.

The two sides to the IIT-B placement failure

In the ongoing placement season at IIT Bombay, approximately 36% of students, translating to 712 out of roughly 2,000 registered students, found themselves without job offers.

• IITs across the country have seen a slow start in campus placements. 45% of students in IIT-Madras also remain unplaced. Full details can be accessed?here.

The big picture:?Of the 2,209 registered students in IIT Bombay in 2023, 1,485 were placed, which means 32.8% remained unplaced in last session as well, raising concerns over the relatively low number of students recruited via campus placements.

• In January, 85 students from IIT Bombay secured packages of Rs.1 crore during the campus placement season.

The reason: This struggle to entice companies for campus placements has been linked to the global economic downturn, which has left many companies hesitant to commit to predetermined salary packages.?

• Earlier there were reports of a low turnout of companies and allegations of favoritism within placement teams.
• Students are increasingly experiencing stress and anxiety over their job prospects, with some opting to decline campus offers that fail to meet the standards set by private colleges for similar positions.

Yes, but: Few argue that the headlines don't give the complete story for various reasons. Humanities students do not have a level playing field and usually record lower placements.

• Even the?2017 placements cell data from all 17 of IITs showed that only 66% got placed, and 34% were left jobless. This is a story from 2011 which states that 20% of the students from IIT-B could not get placed.
• Students may choose alternative career paths such as entrepreneurship, civil services, or further studies.
• The rise of startup culture in India has provided students with diverse career opportunities outside traditional placements. These may not be accounted for in conventional placement statistics.

The bottom line: IIT Bombay finally responded to the issue, clearing things up with a few charts in a tweet:

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Media reports claim Byju Raveendran's net worth plummets to zero

Byju Raveendran's net worth dropped from Rs.17,545 crore ($2.1 billion) to zero as per the Forbes Billionaire Index 2024, revealing the severe financial downturn of Byju's, an Indian edtech company he founded.

What Forbes said: On Byju's exit from the list, Forbes said, "Only four people from last year's list dropped off this time, including former edtech star Byju Raveendran, whose firm Byju's was enveloped in multiple crises and its valuation was marked down by BlackRock to $1 billion, a fraction of its peak $22 billion valuation in 2022."

• It is estimated that Raveendran’s liabilities far exceed his assets, which is why Raveendran’s net worth is given as such.

For context, Anil Ambani had also said his net worth was $0. “The value of my investments has collapsed…My net worth is zero after taking into account my liabilities. In summary, I do not hold any meaningful assets which can be liquidated for the purposes of these proceedings,” he had said to a London court in response to a lawsuit filed by three state-controlled Chinese banks.

The big picture: Byju's financial performance revealed a net loss exceeding $1 billion for the fiscal year ending March 2022, prompting a drastic reduction in valuation by investor BlackRock, from $22 billion to $1 billion.

• Shareholders of Byju's, including Prosus NV and Peak XV Partners, ousted Raveendran as CEO amid concerns over the company's management and direction, as well as regulatory scrutiny from the Enforcement Directorate for alleged FEMA violations over Rs.9,362 crore.

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