With a view to scale up the flagship PM Internship Scheme, the government has initiated discussions with industry stakeholders to discuss how to further the scheme’s reach.
According to sources, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is engaging with India Inc on how to scale up the scheme in order to take internships beyond the current 100,000 or so done in every round.
“The idea is to scale up the scheme for intake of about 15 lakh (150,000) candidates or so. There should be adequate interest from youth as well as opportunities available with firms to do so,” noted a person familiar with the development.
The PM Internship Scheme was announced as part of the five employment linked schemes in the Union Budget 2024-25 to provide formal sector jobs to India’s huge youth workforce. In total, it aims to place 10 million candidates over a five-year period in top 500 companies.
The list of the top 500 companies is based on their average Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure in the last three years and participation is voluntary. The government will pay them Rs 4,500 monthly stipend and the company will pay another Rs 500 per month to each candidate.
The Centre has been launching the scheme in pilot phases to understand how it works and review it to meet the needs of employers as well as applicants.
At present, the third round of registration under the scheme is underway with the deadline for applications until today (April 22). Over 1 lakh internship opportunities are available at top India Inc firms in this round.
The ministry of corporate affairs has been regularly looking into the various issues raised as part of the monitoring of the pilot rounds. Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman had in March also launched a mobile app for candidates with features such as includes features such as easy registration through Aadhaar face authentication, personalised dashboard, access to a dedicated support team as well as real time alerts to keep candidates abreast of new updates. She had also urged more companies to take part in the scheme.
As part of stakeholder consultation, sources had said that the government had received recommendations for widening the ambit of the scheme to include companies beyond the top 500 companies based on their average CSR spends in the last three years. Further, several candidates had indicated their preference to stay in or near their hometowns rather than moving away as it leads to higher costs.
