After lining up investment plans of over thousands of crores in the booming Indian retail sector, corporates are preparing for the next big step, hiring the 'very precious' talent, true in every sense of the word.

Retail biggies like Reliance Retail, Bharti-Wal Mart, Essar, RPG and London-based Tesco are drawing up plans to tap the top Business school campuses, which is likely to make things tough for regular big-time hiring companies belonging to finance, IT and consultancy and is certain to push up hiring costs.

"Almost all major retailers, including Reliance Retail and Bharti Wal-Mart, have evinced interest in recruiting from the campus when the placement process starts in March," IIM Indore student placement secretary Shreyan M L said.

The increased demand is going to give a big push to the average salary of the graduates.

As Shreyan puts it, "these companies have expressed their interest in recruiting large number of graduates and this is going to push the salary offered by as much as 40-50 per cent, since finance and IT sectors would also be vying for the same graduates."

And not only are Indian retail companies coming to the campuses, foreign retailers like Tesco are equally bullish on the Indian brains to manage their operations.

The London-based retail giant, which is considering to enter the Indian market, has already set eyes on the B-school campuses and has confirmed its participation in the placement process at IIM Calcutta, IIM Bangalore and ISB Hyderabad.

The company has also made a presentation at the top-notch Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, and is believed to be gearing up to participate in the recruitment process there as well.