The Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS) has received an enthusiastic response from aspiring interns, with 1,55,109 candidates registering on the PMIS portal within the first 24 hours, sources in the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) said.
The window for youth registration under the PMIS opened on Saturday (5.00 pm) and will remain open till October 25.
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 Corporate Affairs Ministry (MCA).
MCA has set December 2 as target date by which the 1.25 lakhs internships would be provided under the pilot project.
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Youth aged 21-24 and who have passed 10th, 12th, ITI, polytechnic, diploma holders or graduates are eligible to avail the benefits under the scheme.
PMIS was announced in this year’s budget to ensure the skilling of youth (aged 21-24) to enhance their employability.
Corporates onboard
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.
As of October 11, as many as 193 companies had already posted 90,849 internship opportunities in the portal, MCA sources said.
Buoyed by strong response from corporates to the PMIS, the MCA has now extended the window for corporate onboarding to the newly set up dedicated portal till October 15, they added.
Hitherto, the window for their onboarding was open only till October 12, MCA sources said. This latest move to extend the timeline is expected to pave the way for more corporates to participate in PMIS.
Top companies
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.
Presently, internship opportunities are available in 737 districts, spread over 37 States and Union Territories.
The top five States in terms of number of internship opportunities posted are Maharashtra (10242); Tamil Nadu (9827); Gujarat (9311); Karnataka (8326) and Uttar Pradesh (7156), sources added.
The MCA is administering the PMIS. 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.
Huge response
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 90,849 as of October 11.
Under the PMIS, there will be an allowance of ₹5,000 per month and ₹6,000 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 24 sectors where internship opportunities are available include Oil, Gas &Energy sector, Travel &Hospitality, Automotives, Banking and financial services etc.
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.
PMIS was announced in this year’s Budget as part of government efforts to give a push to job creation and skilling among youth of the country.
From October 12 to October 25, candidates can apply on the portal. Candidates shortlist will be prepared on October 26 using artificial intelligence (AI).
Companies will review and select candidates between October 27-November 7. The candidates can then accept or reject the internship offers between November 8-15.