Bangalore: Going wide for campus placements, several B-schools in India have started communicating with potential recruiters for the upcoming summer placements in October-November and are looking to invite companies from diverse sectors for the process. Apart from traditional sectors such as finance, marketing and consultancy, several B-schools hope to attract start-ups, private equity and venture capital firms, media and advertising agencies and even the United Nations (UN). Indian Institute of Management - Calcutta (IIM-C), which invited some 2,000 companies last year, would be reaching out to around 5,000 this year for the summer placements. Companies that visit the campus in November would be invited to come and hire during final placements as well. Also, the IIM-C would be reaching out to organizations such as the Planning Commission, the UN, the Asian Development Bank and the Japan Bank for International Cooperation, among others. IIM-Indore, too, has doubled the number of companies it invited for recruitment, but did not reveal the exact number. "Unlike earlier times where companies hired in large numbers, recent trends have shown that it is better to invite more companies as the number of people hired by each company is fewer than before," says Sapna Agarwal, Head of Career Development Services at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B). The institute will be placing 260 students from the post graduate programme and 70 from the first batch of the executive post graduate programme. Xavier Labour Relations Institute (XLRI) Jamshedpur plans to invite around 70-80 companies for the 240 students it will place for summer placements. Placement officials say that institutes have started polls with students to know who their preferred recruiters are, so that placement slots could be alloted. Slot zero is the most coveted of the slots usually with the best companies from the finance, banking and consulting sectors making offers. "We expect banks and PSUs to hire from our campus. Last year was an unusual placement season for us as we had to extend placement by a few days. We will have a better idea after summer placements this year," said N R Bhusnurmath, Placement Dean at Management Development Institute (MDI) Gurgaon. However, despite the financial crisis, international banks such as the Indian arm of Citigroup, HSBC Holdings and Standard Chartered visited IIM campuses in the last recruitment season, and they are expected this time round as well.