Bhubaneswar, Jan. 3 -- A final-year computer science student at the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad (IIT-H), Edward Nathan Varghese, has secured a record-breaking Rs 2.5 crore annual package from Netherlands-based firm Optiver, defying a challenging job market. This marks the highest salary ever offered to a student at the institute since its establishment in 2008. Varghese will join the firm as a software engineer in July.

At just 21, Varghese converted a two-month summer internship at Optiver into a pre-placement offer (PPO), becoming the sole PPO recipient among the two interns selected. "This was the first and only company I interviewed for. I was ecstatic when my mentor indicated the offer," he told Times of India. Born in ...