PM internship scheme pilot likely to be extended for two months

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) is considering increasing the duration of the ongoing pilot of the Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS) by one or two months, according to official sources. Meanwhile, the government is in the process of finalising the cabinet note for the launch of the full fledged scheme, they said. 

 

With the pilot running since October 2024, the scheme aims to bring India’s youth up to speed with the skill sets the industry requires. It intends to do so by providing year-long internships to 10 million youth in India’s top 500 companies over five years. 

In the first round, the partner companies made over 82,000 internship offers to more than 60,000 candidates. Of these, 28,000 accepted the offer, but eventually only 8,700 joined the internship.

 

A written reply in Lok Sabha stated that in the second round of the pilot that started on January 9, 82,110 offers were made by companies and 24,131 were accepted as on August 12. The last date for accepting offers in the second pilot was August 30, which may now be extended. 

 

“The interns started joining the companies in July this year in the second round. To make a case for the changes required in the scheme to the Cabinet, such as increase in stipend or other factors the pilot may need to run a little longer,” an industry source said. 

 

Location considerations, duration of internship, pursuance of higher education among others are reasons for applicants not accepting the offer or not joining the internship, according to feedback received from various stakeholders, such as candidates, industry and associations and state governments.

 

The launch of the full fledged scheme would be based on the feedback received from the stakeholder consultations and evaluation of outcomes during the implementation of the pilot project. 

 

The Prime Minister Internship Scheme needs to have periodic independent evaluations for transparency and relaxed eligibility norms for marginalised and economically weaker candidates, the Standing Committee on Finance had said in a report submitted to the Parliament, during the monsoon session.

 

The report highlighted that without adequate support for living expenses, candidates from remote or underserved regions may be unable to participate. This would hinder the program's inclusivity and its potential to attract a diverse pool of talent, the panel had said.

 

The Committee called for broader engagement with SMEs, startups, and regional stakeholders as it is essential to ensure inclusive sectoral and geographic representation of the internship programme.

 

The scheme was allocated ₹2,000 crore in Budget estimates of FY25, which was changed to ₹380 crore in revised estimates. The government allocated ₹10,831 crore towards the scheme in FY26. 

 

The MCA has already prepared the note for the expenditure finance committee for the full rollout of the scheme, sources said.