More than 1,700 candidates were short-listed out of which till the last count, 60 have been given on-the-spot offer letters. Since 8,500 resume are yet to be processed, this could further translate into more short-listing and confirmations in the coming weeks.

Among the participating companies were GE, SBI, BMC Software, HSBC Software, WNS-GS, KPIT, Cummins Infosystems, Cybage Software Solutions, Tata Honeywell and Kanbay. The jobs being offered were in the fields of IT and IT-enabled services, and the companies were looking for a mix of both freshers and experienced candidates.

HR Works and Venture India, which conceptualised this two-day fair, had anticipated a turnout of about 6,000 participants and were pleasantly surprised when they found out that more than 4,000 people were waiting at the venue before the event even began. This number increased by noon, making it difficult to process the candidates.

Since the response generated at the E Recruitment Fair 2003 on the first day was huge, the organisers had to coordinate an additional venue, the Don Bosco Youth Centre, to accommodate the massive influx of prospective participants.

Says Vijay Waidande, president and CEO, HR Works: "The overwhelming response that we received on the first day was a huge surprise to us as we had estimated a turnout of 6,000 participants for both days. We got this magic number in the first half of the first day, which made the task of processing the CVs virtually impossible. So we had to overnight look at an additional venue to ensure smooth and effective functioning of the fair.

"The additional venue facilitated the smooth functioning at the fair. This helped us take care of outstation participants on an immediate basis so that they could be processed at the earnest in consideration of their travel plans."

Says Kavita Kulkarni, vice-president (HR and training), WNS-GS: "Due to a heavy turnout on the first day we were only able to shortlist but not conduct any written tests or interviews. But on the second day with the additional venue we were able to process candidates. Now the real challenge for all organisations will be to screen these CVs and shortlist them as per requirement and get in touch with them for the interviews. The life of a business process outsourcing CV is not more than 20 days."