Internship scheme opens for candidates to register, over 80,000 positions listed

Over the last one week, the portal has added more than 80,000 internship opportunities across 24 sectors including oil, gas & energy sector, travel & hospitality, automotives, banking and financial services, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), which is the implementing ministry for the scheme, said in a post on X (formerly Twitter).

“PM Internship Portal will go live for the registration of candidates from 5.00 PM today. Candidates can register themselves on the portal through: pminternship.mca.gov.in,” it said.

The highest internship opportunities have been listed for the oil, gas & energy sector with over 25,000 positions by companies, followed by over 16,000 listings for manufacturing and automotive sectors, and over 10,000 for banking and financial sector. The highest listings have been for Maharashtra (10,242), followed by Tamil Nadu (9,827), Gujarat (9,311), Karnataka (8,326) and Uttar Pradesh (7,156).

“PM Internship Scheme is a transformative initiative by the Hon’ble PM Shri @narendramodi-led government to ensure the skilling of our youth, which will enhance their employability. It will provide an opportunity to do an internship in the Top 500 companies in India for 12 months and learn from the best,” the Ministry said.

Mahindra & Mahindra, Alembic Pharma, Max Life Insurance were among the initial companies that had listed their internship opportunities on the portal. The list has now expanded to include other companies like Jubilant Foodworks, Eicher Motors, Larsen & Toubro, Bajaj Finance and Muthoot Finance.

Some users complained of not receiving the OTPs via email in their initial registration attempts on the portal. The feedback is being monitored and glitches are expected to be sorted out, officials said.

A list of shortlisted entries is expected to be shared with companies from October 27 to November 7. Candidates will have time to accept the offer between November 8 to November 15. In case the candidate does not accept the first internship offer, two more offers would be made, sources said.

The pilot phase of the scheme, which will run through several layers of matching profiles, selection of candidates and offer letters, aims to provide internship opportunities to 1.25 lakh candidates involving a cost of Rs 800 crore for the government. Around 1 lakh youth are expected to be enrolled in the internship scheme by early December.

Selected interns will be paid Rs 4,500 per month as stipend by the government through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT). An additional Rs 500 per month will be provided by the company’s CSR (corporate social responsibility) funds. The government will also provide a one-time grant of Rs 6,000 per annum for incidentals to cover miscellaneous expenses incurred by the selected candidate during the internship.

Candidates who have passed high school, higher secondary school, have a certificate from an ITI, hold a diploma from a polytechnic institute, or are graduates with degrees such as B.A., B. Sc., B. Com, BCA, BBA, B.Pharma are eligible to apply under the scheme. Reservation structure will be the same as government jobs for SCs, STs, OBCs and disabled in the internship scheme.

If any of the family members of the candidate earned over Rs 8 lakh income in financial year 2023-24 or any member is a permanent/regular government employee, then such candidates will not be eligible to apply for internship. Graduates from IITs, IIMs, national law universities, IISER, NIDs and IIITs or those having qualifications such as CA, CMA, CS, MBBS, BDS, MBA, any master’s or higher degree will also be ineligible.

The internship scheme was announced in the Budget for 2024-25 by Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman as part of the Prime Minister’s Package for Employment and Skilling with an overall outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore. It aims to provide skill training to over one crore youth in India’s top 500 companies in five years, with a focus on those with lower employability.