Bangalore: As India's silicon city, Bangalore continues to dominate not only in IT exports, but also in having 22 of the 117 top technology institutions (T-schools) in the country, according to a survey of engineering colleges.

The Dataquest-IDC survey also found Karnataka having one out of four of the best T-schools, with the prominent among them being in tier-two cities such as Bellary, Mysore, Tumkur and Udupi.

The findings were based on composite scores measured in terms of placements, infrastructure, academic environment, industry interface and human resource perception.

Of the top T-schools across the country, seven are in Chennai, five in Delhi and six in Ghaziabad in Uttar Pradesh. Of the 22 in Bangalore, PES Institute of Technology was ranked among the top five in south India and 24th nationwide.

The other city-based T-schools which made to the top 117 are: Sir M. Visvesvaraya Institute of Technology (rank 30), New Horizon College of Engineering (32), M.S. Ramaiah Institute of Technology (36), R.V. College of Engineering (38), Dr. Ambedkar Institute of Technology (59), University Visversvaraya College of Engineer (60), Dayanand Sagar College of Engineering (65), HKBK College of Engineering (66), RNS Institute of Technology (67), East West Institute of Technology (69), KS Institute of Technology (73), JSS Academy of Technical Education (74), APS College of Engineering (84), Bangalore Institute of Technology (86), Acharya Institute of Technology (88), BNM Institute of Technology (92), BTL Institute of Technology (96), Global Academy of Technology (97), SKSJT Institute (99), Vivekananda Institute of Technology (105) and Atria Institute of Technology (115).

Among the major overseas firms that went on scouting for talent in campuses is the $19-billion Schlumberger GmBH, the world's largest oilfield corporation. The survey revealed the European firm hired a record number of engineering graduates from Indian campuses, offering a whopping Rs.4.5 million per annum to a student of Netaji Subhas Institute of Technology in Delhi.

Schlumberger also recruited students from BITS Pilani with an offer of Rs.4.1 million, NIT Tirucharapalli (Rs.4 million), IIT Guwahati (Rs.3.24 million), IIT Kharagpur (Rs.2.4 million), IIT Kanpur (Rs.2.3 million) and Institute of Technology, BHU at Varanasi (Rs.2.3 million) per annum.

International news agency Bloomberg offered an IIT Chennai graduate Rs.4 million. Similarly, Capital One hired an IIT Roorkee graduate for Rs.3.4 million per annum. The highest offer made by an IT firm was Rs.1.8 million.

The world's largest software firm Microsoft hired engineering and computer science graduates from five T-schools, with offers ranging between Rs.900,000 to Rs.950,000 per annum.

The average annual salary for an engineer recruited from the 2007 batch shot up by 28 percent to Rs.341,000 from Rs.266,000. Similarly, maximum salary offered by IT firms has increased to Rs.1.8 million from Rs.1.5 million last year.