New Delhi, July 29 -- India's leading business schools are seeing a sharp rise in pre-placement offers this year despite a sluggish job market. Students across Indian Institutes of Management in Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore and Kozhikode who completed their summer internships in April-May are reporting strong hiring interest from recruiters.

A pre-placement offer (PPO) is a job offer typically extended by a company to a student interning with it even before the formal campus placement process begins.

While consulting and finance firms continue to dominate pre-placement offers, recruiters from sectors such as renewable energy, edtech, political consulting, think tanks, and nonprofits are also showing significant interes...