Beating the slowdown, chartered accountants (CAs) have bagged jobs with top-notch companies in the latest campus placement drive, which has also seen more newly qualified professionals get jobs.

State-run companies, especially from the financial services sector, have emerged as the biggest recruiters in the current round of hiring.

Four newly-qualified members of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI), the apex body governing the profession, have been offered Rs 23 lakh each for international posting by the Tolaram group, a Singapore-based private company, compared with last years highest salary of Rs 21 lakh.

When institutions of international repute are finding it hard to attract companies to their institutes to place their handful of students, the ICAI has proved itself to be an important destination to recruit finance, audit and compliance executives, said ICAI President Uttam Prakash Agarwal.

Jaypee Capital Services, Indian Oil Ltd, State Bank of India, HDFC, Bank of India and HPCL have emerged as the main recruiting companies. Some other companies which participated in the placement drive include Cairn India, L&T, Nestle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Price Waterhouse, Vedanta, Wipro, Sony India, the Tolaram Group, PowerGrid Corporation, ONGC, BPCL, IFCI and Sebi.

Incidentally, the average starting salary this year is Rs 6 lakh, almost the same as last year. However, since public sector companies were in the process of reviewing their salaries according to the Sixth Pay Commission rules, the starting salaries of many CAs hired by banks and other PSUs would increase substantially, said an ICAI member, who is part of the placement process.

Around 400 newly qualified CAs have already been placed in April and May this year alone. This was higher than the number of students who were placed last year, said the member.

In addition, for the first time, ICAI is organising campus placement programme for newly qualified CAs to be place in small and medium industries and CA firms.

The Institute has got a wide range of recruiting entities both from India and abroad representing wide range of industries and sectors from public sector and private.

No CA can sit idle because if CAs are not attached with other firms then they can start their own practice, said the ICAI member.