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08/08/25 09:28 AM IST

Prime Minister Internship Scheme

In News 
  • Based on the review of the two pilot phases carried out for the PM Internship Scheme (PMIS), the Ministry of Corporate Affairs is planning to undertake certain tweaks in the scheme.
About PMIS 
  • The scheme aims to provide internships to one crore youth in top 500 companies over five years.
  • Under the scheme, an amount of Rs 4,500 will be provided per month by the Government of India through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) with an additional Rs 500 offset to be provided by the company’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds.
  • The government will also provide a one-time grant of Rs 6,000 per annum for incidentals to cover miscellaneous expenses incurred by the selected candidate during the internship.
  • The internship scheme was a part of the Prime Minister’s Package for Employment and Skilling announced in FY25 Budget with an overall outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore.
  • The package was allocated Rs 12,000 crore for this financial year, out of which Rs 10,000 crore was allocated to the Ministry of Labour and Employment for the three Employment Linked-Incentive schemes and Rs 2,000 crore was provided to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs for the internship programme.
  • In the revised estimates for 2024-25, the amount allocated for the internship scheme was scaled down to Rs 380 crore. For 2025-26, an amount of Rs 10,831 crore has been provided for the internship scheme in the Budget, including Rs 59.77 crore of capital outlay.
Challenges 
  • The gender imbalance with the ratio of male to female interns of 72:28 was one of the key concerns flagged by Parliament’s Standing Committee on Finance to the government, as per a report of the Committee tabled in Lok Sabha.
  • While appreciating the Ministry (of Corporate Affairs) for taking all efforts to achieve the ambitious target of the scheme; the Committee urges the Ministry to act swiftly and decisively to overcome/address the key challenges faced during pilot phase viz. mismatch between the number of internship opportunities offered and actual participation; longer duration of internships; under-utilisation of funds; imbalanced gender ratio of male to female interns stands at 72:28; lack of alignment between candidates’ interests and the roles offered.
  • The government had responded by saying that the numbers picked up after the first pilot.
  • With reference to the observed gender imbalance among interns selected under the Scheme, it is submitted that in the Round I of the Pilot Project, 31 per cent of applicants were female candidates.
  • The representation of females amongst the interns stands at 28 percent which is almost consistent with the representation of females at the application stage.
  • Low acceptance rate of the offers made under the Internship Scheme has been a key concern. Prospective applicants have also flagged some of the issues under the Scheme with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs earlier including a request to relax the age limit from 24 years to 25 years, employment prospects after internship and few openings in the IT sector in the ‘Candidate Open House for the PM Internship Scheme’ in March.
Source- Indian Express 

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