Bangalore, March 9 (IANS) Global firms in investment banking, consulting, marketing and management came calling here on a hiring spree to the Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore (IIM-B), signalling a revival of the world economy.

'The entire batch of 270 post-graduate students passing out this academic year has been placed in five days, with global firms vying for the best and the brightest grads in the country,' IIM-B director Pankaj Chandra told reporters Tuesday. The hiring concluded Monday.

Leading the hiring pack of 120 firms to the B-school campuses were international accounting and consulting firm Deloitte with maximum offers of 10, followed by McKinsey and Boston Consulting Group making nine offers each on day one for slot zero placements.

Though the focus remained on traditional sectors such as banking, consulting, marketing and general management, emerging sectors like healthcare and energy offered several high-level positions.

'Lateral placements were also at an all-time high owing to the higher degree of work experience amongst the current batch,' Chandra said.

This was in stark contrast to last year when the B-school campus hiring had to be stretched to 11 days to place its batch of 260 grads.

Other recruiters were Bain & Co, Booz & Co, A.T. Kearney, Diamond Consulting, Alvarez & Marsal, Nomura and Temasek Holdings. P&G, ITC and American Express made six offers each.

Amongst the 15 first-time recruiters, Narayana Hrudayalaya, the city-based healthcare group, offered senior level positions to six students.

In all, 90 students accepted offers in slot zero, which is an increase of 41 percent over the last year.

The banking and financial services sector was the largest recruiter, with 27 percent of the offers, followed by consulting (22 percent), IT & Systems (20 percent), marketing (12 percent), and general management (nine percent).

Private Equity (PE) firms, emerging sectors and state-run public sector undertakings (PSUs) snapped up remaining grads.

Several companies, including Nomura, Temasek, P&G, Enzen, Arvin Meritor and UAE Exchange offered international positions.

The 45 women in the batch accepted offers across sectors, including investment banking, consulting and PE as well as outside India.