Over 155,000 candidates register for PM’s internship scheme in first phase; 80,000-plus positions on offer

New Delhi: Over 155,000 candidates registered for the Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme as of Sunday, a person with knowledge of the development said.

The response from candidates in the first phase of the scheme, which was rolled out on 3 October, was better than what policymakers expected. The government had targeted shortlisting 100,000 candidates for internships by December.

Over five years, the scheme promises 10 million youth 12-month internship opportunities in the top 500 companies in the country. The government has identified all the 500 partner companies and has listed them on a web portal operated by the ministry of corporate affairs, which administers the scheme.

More than 80,000 internships across 24 sectors are already on the table from about 200 companies, showed the portal.

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Jubilant Foodworks, Eicher Motor Ltd, Larsen & Toubro Ltd, Tech Mahindra, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd, Bajaj Finance and Muthoot Finance are among the companies that have offered internships so far, a second person aware of the developments said on condition of not being identified.

The programme offers youth aged 21-24 years exposure to real-life business environments across sectors, helping them gain skills and work experience. Queries emailed on Monday to the ministry of corporate affairs and to the companies seeking comment on the internship scheme remained unanswered at the time of publishing.

Benefits for interns

The interns will get monthly assistance of ₹4,500 from the government and ₹500 from the company, in addition to a one-time grant of ₹6,000 from the government to support them. Companies are allowed to meet the cost of training interns as well as the ₹500 per intern that they contribute monthly from their corporate social responsibility funds.

Insurance cover will be provided to every intern under the Pradhan Mantri Jeevan Jyoti Bima Yojana and Pradhan Mantri Suraksha Bima Yojana.

Internships are available in sectors including oil and gas, energy, travel and hospitality, automotives, banking and financial services, infrastructure and construction, manufacturing, aviation and defence. It covers fields such as production, maintenance, sales, marketing and operations management. The opportunities are spread across 737 districts, the portal showed.

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The Confederation of Indian Industry and the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry have tied up with the government for the internship programme. The scheme, an example of public-private partnership, shows the government’s active intermediation in connecting young people from across the country to businesses looking for talent.

The scheme was launched amid concerns over job creation in the economy not keeping pace with the requirement of a large working age population. 

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