Uber Technologies has emerged the top paymaster on day one of final placements at the Indian Institutes of Technology, handing out Rs 2 crore-plus salary offers.

The San Francisco-based, mobility-as-a-service provider has made these offers at the IITs of Bombay, Madras, Roorkee, Kanpur, Guwahati and Varanasi, among others, placement cell members told. According to them, the Uber salary package amounts to about $274,250, or about Rs 2.05 crore, including around $128,250 (approx. Rs 96 lakh) base pay, target cash bonus, new hire grant and a sign-on bonus.

The offer marked the comeback of Rs 2-crore compensation packages on IIT campuses after a nearly six-year gap. Last year’s top package across IITs was a $200,000, or Rs 1.48 crore, offer from San Jose-headquartered IT company Cohesity.

Uber did not comment on its package. “Uber is hiring engineers for its centres in Hyderabad and Bengaluru,” a company spokesperson told. “As part of this continuing recruitment drive, Uber regularly visits top technology campuses across India, including IITs, to give graduates opportunities to apply for open roles.”

Several IITs have also reported an increase in the number of Rs 1 crore-plus packages for both domestic and international postings amid a fierce global competition for top tech talent.

High-frequency trading firms such as Quantbox Research, Graviton Research, Da Vinci Derivatives, and Quadeye, too, were among those that offered lucrative salary packages to onboard selected students on day one of campus placement. Da Vinci is offering €153,000, or about Rs 1.3 crore, without stock options for international postings.

Domestic packages offered by some of these firms went up to Rs 1.8 crore—factoring in the bonus for the second year as well as sign-on bonus, non-cash benefits and ESOPs. “Both domestic and international packages have touched new highs this year,” Abhishek Kumar, head of Centre for Career Development at IIT Guwahati, told.

Early trends indicate that the average salaries will be higher than last year, he said. The institute has already received one international offer from Uber.

“This year there is a good requirement for engineers, especially for software-based roles and trading-based roles,” CS Shankar Ram, advisor (training and placement) at IIT Madras, told. The institute has received 11 international offers — one from Uber, two from Rubrik, four from Cohesity for US roles, and four from Da Vinci Derivatives for Amsterdam, he said.

At IIT Roorkee, top international packages jumped three-fold to Rs 2.15 crore from Rs 69.05 lakh last year, while 11 students got packages of more than Rs 1 crore. At IIT Bombay, the top package was Rs 2.05 crore from Uber, Rubrik offered Rs 90.6 lakh ($121000). At IIT Kanpur, Uber and Rubrik offered postings abroad, a student said.

At IIT-BHU in Varanasi, the top package offered on day one was Rs 2.05 crore and there has been a significant increase in both the number of visiting companies and the offers, said Anil Kumar Agarwal, professor-in-charge of training and placements.

Recruiters on the first day across IITs included Uber Technologies, JPMorgan Chase, Flipkart, Amazon, Schlumberger, Microsoft, Apple, Google, Texas Instruments, Bajaj Auto, Qualcomm, Goldman Sachs, ITC, Hindustan Unilever, Codenation, Oracle, Intel, Cairn Oil & Gas, and SAP Labs among others.