Corporates have responded enthusiastically to the Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS), with 253 companies collectively making nearly 1.25 lakh offers for internships in the dedicated portal, official sources said.

The initiative, aimed at providing young Indians with practical industry experience and enhancing their employability, has witnessed an overwhelming response from both the private sector and aspiring interns. 

The Corporate Affairs Ministry (MCA) is administering the PMIS, which was announced in this year’s Union Budget.

Top 500 corporates by CSR spend (average  of last three financial years) have been allowed to participate in the scheme and offer internship opportunities to youth.

The strong response to the scheme from corporates can be gauged from the fact that the number of internship opportunities posted in the portal has surged from about 16,000 as of October 7 to about 1,25,000 as of October 18, sources in MCA said.

Already PMIS has received strong response from aspiring interns, with 1,55,109 candidates initiating the process of registering on the PMIS portal within the first 24 hours of its opening on October 12.

PMIS seeks to bridge the gap between academic learning and industry requirements by offering internship opportunities across diverse sectors such as technology, manufacturing, finance, retail, healthcare, and more. 

The government’s focus on making India’s youth job-ready and aligning their skills with market demands appears to be resonating with companies eager to contribute to the nation’s workforce development, economy watchers said.

Top corporates participate 

Some of the top corporates who have already offered internship opportunities to youth include Mahindra & Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services, Larsen & Toubro , Reliance Industries, HDFC Bank, Maruti Suzuki, Tech Mahindra, ONGC, Bajaj Finance, Eicher Motor, Max Life Insurance, Muthoot Finance and Jubilant Foodworks. 

In fact, Maruti Suzuki is among the leading set of corporates as regards PMIS participation and has offered about 11,000 internship opportunities, official sources said.

Sectoral Response 

The maximum number of internship opportunities were seen in oil gas & energy (29,019), followed by automotive (20,433); travel and hospitality (15,518), banking and financial services (12,190) and metals and mining (8,782), official sources said. 

The other key sectors that saw internship opportunities posted by corporates include manufacturing & industrial, infrastructure and construction, IT and software development, FMCG and telecom.

Presently, internship opportunities are available in 737 districts, spread over 37 States and Union Territories. 

Under the pilot programme, the dedicated PMIS portal —-www.pminternship.mca.gov.in— was opened on October 3 for corporates to onboard and register their internship opportunities. 

The window for youth registration under the PMIS was opened on October 12 and is likely to remain open till early November.

The first day candidate registrations count are in fact higher than the overall target of 1.25 lakh candidates that are sought to be provided internship under the pilot project for PMIS being administered by MCA.

MCA has set December 2 as target date by which the 1.25 lakhs internships would be provided under the pilot project. 

Youth aged 21-24 and who have passed 10th, 12th, ITI, Polytechnic, Diploma or graduates are eligible to avail the benefits under the scheme. 

PMIS Benefits 

Under the PMIS, there will be an allowance of ₹5000 per month and ₹6000 as a one-time grant.

MCA has recently stipulated that internship aspirants looking to avail benefits of PM Internship Scheme need to possess Aadhar number or undergo Aadhaar authentication. 

The Government has set aside ₹800 crore for the pilot scheme, which aims to provide 1.25 lakh internships to youth aged between 21 and 24 in FY’25.

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