Placement at IITs have always been one of the most anticipated time for the graduating batch of students, and makes exciting news headlines across the country. Controlled individually by the respective Training & Placement (T&P) cells, earlier there was not much common coordination working among different IITs. However the practice of the Heads of T&P cells informally meeting or consulting each other over related problems, common practices, company anomalies, etc. did exist. Since the session 2003-2004, these turned into formal meetings organized and coordinated by any one of the IITs in their campuses, and the foundation of the All IIT’s Placement Committee (AIPC) started taking shape. The matter was brought to the All IIT Directors meeting in 2004-2005 and the new initiative soon geared on well-defined responsibilities deliberated over Annual Meets. During 2004-2007, there was only one meeting held in a year, and in a big breakthrough, consensus was reached over accepting December 1st, as Day 0 for all IITs to follow. Subsequently, AIPC started the practice of dividing the IITs into two groups, for better alignment of placement purposes- Group I (the older IITs following Dec 1st as day 0) and Group II (the newer IITs). However based on the increase of graduating students, a Group II institute can enter Group I later. The Group II IITs have the option of forming a pool among themselves if they so wish, and are permitted to start their placements 1st September onwards. Since 2008 onwards, two meetings in a year started happening, one in Sept/October, to plan and consolidate the ensuing placement processes and the second one in March/April to review the results thereof the completed placement session. The role of the AIPC Convener was assigned to the Professor-in Charge of T&P cell of the coordinating institute. IIT Kanpur and IIT Bombay were in leadership roles in the period 2006-2010. IIT Kharagpur took the reins in the period 2011 -2013, IIT Madras was convener in 2014, followed by different other IITs, with the conveners changing every year. The name of the T&P cell gradually changed in most of the IITs into Career Development Centre/ Services. The AIPC conveners were also now appointed for a fixed term of two years. During the pandemic period 2020-2022, the meetings shifted to online mode, and the placement procedures also adopted a paradigm shift.
Currently AIPC is constituted by the Heads of Career Development/ Training and Placement Cells of all the 23 IITs of the country, and is a forum where they meet at regular intervals to share their recruitment experiences and problems. On some matters, AIPC lays down a set of guidelines that companies must adhere to for on-campus hiring and internships in IITs. The members also collectively take action to improve the efficiency of selection processes protecting students’ academic and career interests. AIPC also deals with companies that dishonour or deviate from conditions in job offers. Several new government policies like the Graduation Outcome parameter in NIRF using placement metrics and the recent plans of implementing the NEP and NCrF calls for more coordinated efforts from the AIPC to make proper surveys and align the stakeholders of academia, students and industry in the overall development of the nation.