Kolkata: Post Graduate Diploma for Business Management (PGDBM) students at Indian Institute of Management Calcutta (IIM-C) have received over 200 offers during lateral placements that got started in January and is scheduled to be carried on through February. It's a rise of almost 60 percent as compared to last year, says Amit Dhiman, Professor in charge of placements. Campus of IIM-C witnessed participation of around 50 companies most of whom have already made the offers. Industries from different verticals like financial sector, Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) and Information Technology (IT) that offered the placements. Dhiman says, the seats for lateral placements are kept reserved for students having considerable work experience. Offers are also made in consideration with the roles that are dependent on the nature of their prior work experience. Some of the companies that made offers at the placements include Barclays Bank, Accenture, PWC, Shell, ABG, RPG, Hinduja, Amazon, Microsoft, and Deloitte among others. Pre-Placement Offer (PPO) conversion rate at 87.5 percent of IIM-C is highest among other IIMs. Apart from lateral placement, this year has also seen keen interest in the consulting domain with firms like Singapore-based DPDHL, having offered students in-house consulting profiles. "Keeping the positive trend in the lateral placements in mind, one is hopeful of a good performance in the final placements as well, which are slated to begin in March. He also added that as of now they are comfortably placed across all slots," says Dhiman.