Chennai: Vice Chancellor P. Mannar Jawahar inaugurated the state-level placement drive for the Chennai zone for self-financing colleges affiliated to Anna University on Monday.

"997 students from 82 colleges appeared for a written test administered by cognizant at Saveetha Engineering College. Out of these, 300 had been scrutinized for interviews slated for Tuesday," said S. Selvam, director, Centre for University Industry Collaboration (CUIC).

With Infosys and Accenture already having visited Tirunelveli and Coimbatore for recruitment, the drive is being conducted by Anna University in three zones.

"Only those students securing 80 per cent and above in the first seven semesters were allowed to participate in the drive. More companies, even those from the core sector have expressed interest in the same," he added.