The second round of the PM Internship Scheme (PMIS) pilot project commenced from January 9, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
The companies are in the process of posting new as well as editing unfilled internship opportunities, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply to Lok Sabha question.
Sitharaman also said that so far ₹48 crore has been spent towards the PMIS pilot project, out of the ₹840 crore approved for the scheme.
Announced during Budget 2024-25, PMIS aims to provide internship opportunities to one crore youth in top 500 companies over five years.
The first round of the PMIS pilot project had received an encouraging response, with 28,141 applicants (aged 21-24) accepting internship offers from partner companies. This is out of 82,077 offers made to 60,866 candidates.
Most offers to UP
Uttar Pradesh led with the highest number of accepted offers (4,656), followed by Bihar (2,418), Madhya Pradesh (2,058), Andhra Pradesh (1,970), and Assam (1,780).
The pilot project, launched on October 3, 2024, initially targeted 1.25 lakh internships for FY 2024-25. The first round saw over 1.27 lakh opportunities offered nationwide, with Tamil Nadu (14,585), Maharashtra (13,664), Gujarat (11,690), and Karnataka (10,022) leading in openings.
PMIS is designed to enhance employability by offering industry exposure, not direct employment.
Under the PMIS, there will be an allowance of ₹5,000 per month and ₹6,000 as a one-time grant to an intern. Companies will assess interns periodically and upload quarterly reports on the dedicated portal.
As per guidelines, the 12-month internship requires at least half the duration to be spent in actual work environments rather than classrooms.
The list of the top 500 companies selected on the basis of average Corporate SocialResponsibility (CSR) expenditure in the last 3 years, covers sectors like aviation and defence, automotive, banking and financial services, chemical industry, oil, gas and energy etc. Further, to promote internships in emerging sectors, scheme guidelines have a provision that any company/bank/financial institution desirous of participating in the scheme may approach the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), which would take a call keeping in view under represented sectors. Participation of the companies in this scheme is voluntary.
Through this scheme, the youth will gain exposure to real-life business environment across varied professions and employment opportunities.
The guidelines of the PMIS pilot provide for the constitution of a monitoring and steering committee comprising all stakeholders, including industry representatives to oversee design implementation, operations and other aspects. Further, a concurrent Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework is also provided for to enable tracking of the outcomes as well as ensure corrective actions during the course of implementation of the pilot project.