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PM Internship Scheme
PM Internship Scheme
Context: The data presented in Parliament in September 2025 reveals a starkly underwhelming performance of the Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS).
What is the PM Internship Scheme?
The PMIS is a large-scale skilling and employability initiative launched by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs in October 2024. Its key features are:
- Objective: To equip one crore youth from tier-2 and tier-3 cities with industry-relevant skills over five years, enhancing their readiness for the job market.
- Structure: Provides one-year internships in partner private companies and PSUs.
- Financial Support: Interns receive a monthly stipend of ₹5,000, with ₹4,500 contributed by the government and ₹500 by the company via its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds. A one-time grant of ₹6,000 is also provided to selected candidates.
- Voluntary Participation: The scheme is voluntary for companies, which can offer internships based on their capacity.
- Current Status: The scheme is currently in a pilot phase, intended to test concepts and strategies before a full-scale nationwide rollout.
What are the major concerns associated with it?
The scheme’s performance data highlights several critical concerns:
- Extremely Low Conversion & High Attrition: The scheme suffers from a severe “pipeline leak.”
- Only 16,060 of 52,600 candidates who accepted offers actually joined (30% conversion).
- Even more alarmingly, 41% of those who joined (6,618 interns) dropped out before completing the year.
- Poor Job Conversion Rate: The ultimate goal of enhancing employability has seen minimal success, with only 95 interns across the country receiving full-time job offers from their host organisations so far.
- Massive Under-utilisation of Funds: Against an allocated budget of ₹10,831 crore for FY 2025-26, only ₹73.72 crore has been spent, indicating a failure in scheme uptake and implementation.
- Lack of Corporate Engagement: Many participating companies offered a very low number of internships (some as few as one), and only one PSU (ONGC) made full-time job offers, pointing to lukewarm or token involvement from the corporate sector.
- Declining Interest in Key States: While applications are high, actual joinings declined in the second round in major states like Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Madhya Pradesh.
What are the major causes of concern?
The government’s reply in Parliament and the data trends point to several root causes:
- Structural Issues in Design:
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- Location Constraints: Candidates are reluctant to travel beyond 5-10 km, indicating a mismatch between the location of opportunities and the residential preferences of the youth.
- Duration: The 12-month internship is perceived as too long compared to other skilling programs, deterring participation.
- Quality and Perception of Roles: “Lack of interest in roles on offer” suggests that the internships may not be perceived as providing valuable, career-enhancing skills or credible pathways to employment.
- Implementation & Awareness Challenges: The subdued response in Round 2, despite improvements in transparency, indicates deeper issues possibly related to outreach, candidate counselling, or the scheme’s value proposition among the target demographic.
- Ambiguity in Corporate Commitment: The voluntary nature and low number of offers from many companies raise questions about the scheme’s attractiveness to employers and whether it aligns with their actual talent needs, beyond being a CSR obligation.
