While the PM Internship Scheme’s pilot project has exceeded its target of providing 1.25 lakh internship opportunities in a year, it has found few takers among India’s youth, data presented to Parliament shows.
Over two phases, 1.65 lakh internship offers were made by companies to applicants, Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra informed the Lok Sabha in a reply to a question. Of these offers, only 20% were accepted. Candidates cited locations, roles, and duration as reasons for declining offers. Of those who accepted offers, one-fifth of participants left their internships before completing them.
The Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS) was announced in the Union Budget 2024 with the aim of providing internship opportunities to one crore youth in India’s top 500 companies in five years. In October 2024, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs launched a pilot project for the scheme, targeting 1.25 lakh internship opportunities in a year.
Low acceptance rates
Under the first round of the pilot project, companies posted more than 1.27 lakh internship opportunities on the scheme portal, for which 6.21 lakh applications were received. The companies made 82,000 internship offers, of which 8,700 or 10.6% of the offers were accepted.
