Due to the lukewarm response from the corporates in the PM Internship Scheme (PMIS), the government amended the scheme early this year to attract a larger pool of companies, the minister of state for corporate affairs Harsh Malhotra told parliament. He said that in the second round of the pilot project that began in January this year, the ministry of corporate affairs (MCA) changed the eligibility criteria for companies to include companies with over Rs 1,000 crore turnover or more than Rs 500 crore networth.
As per the initial plan, the scheme was restricted to top 500 companies on the basis of average corporate social responsibility (CSR) expenditure in the last 3 years.
Dismal response from corporates
The minister’s response shows that despite this modification in the scheme, just about 73 new companies participated in the second round, including Hyundai Motors, Bandhan Bank, Nirma, Godrej Consumer Products and Pfizer. In the first round, only 280 companies had participated by posting over 1,27,000 internship opportunities.
Malhotra said that to promote internships in emerging sectors, pilot project guidelines have a provision that any other company or bank or financial institution which is not part of the top 500 list but is willing to participate in the scheme can take an approval from MCA which will decide on its inclusion with a view that such company is part of the under-represented sector within the existing ecosystem of top 500 companies.
Only 12.8% interns were able to join companies
Earlier, the minister had told parliament that out of the total target of 1,25,000 internships for FY25, just 16,000 interns have joined their respective companies.
The latest data shows that interns with graduation accounted for the highest number among all other cohorts such as ITI certificate holders, diploma holders, class 10 and class 12 passouts. Also, companies like Jubilant Foodworks, Maruti Suzuki India, ONGC, Eicher Motors, Power Grid Corporation of India and Reliance Industries posted the highest number of internship opportunities across two rounds.
Announced in the Budget 2024-25, PMIS aims to provide internship opportunities to 10 million people over five years offering them a monthly stipend of Rs 5,000. The PMIS is designed to enhance industry-relevant skills, improve job readiness, and foster professional exposure through structured internships in India’s top-performing companies and institutions to create job-ready, skilled workforce. Even though the scheme is not designed to provide placements, companies are free to issue placement offers to candidates after assessing their capabilities to fulfill the workforce requirements. For FY26, the government has allocated Rs 10,831 crore to the scheme.