Top 500 firms likely to get ‘quota’ for interns based on CSR spend

The government is keen to ensure that those at the margins are able to make the most of this internship scheme. “We won’t be giving them (companies) the type of people they would normally recruit because we don’t want to give them a subsidy for people they would have hired anyway. We will have a negative list also: Say, nobody from IITs, IIMs, chartered accountants, cost accountants, nobody who is paying income tax, nobody whose parent is a government servant, etc. We want it for the people who are left out of the normal channels of recruitment,” Somanathan said.

The Finance Secretary, who also holds the charge of Expenditure Secretary, said the interns would be chosen through an “objective criteria”. “That’s the general Idea, but we will make it more concrete as we go. It will involve design challenges and we will be open to suggestions on how best to do it,” he said. Given that these are top 500 companies, they have a reputation to maintain and so the quality (of internships) would be good, he said.

To involve the private sector in the skilling part of the schemes under the package was Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s idea, according to sources involved in formulating the scheme. “The idea to involve the private sector in the skilling schemes came from the PM. He was firmly of the view, based on his experience, that the private sector has to do the skilling part in these schemes and the government cannot do it alone,” a source, who did not want to be named, said.

In the Union Budget for 2024-25 presented by the NDA government on Tuesday, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the Prime Minister’s Package for Employment and Skilling with an overall outlay of Rs 2 lakh crore. “As part of this package, internships are to be provided to 1 crore youth by India’s top 500 companies over the next five years. They will gain exposure for 12 months to real-life business environments, varied professions and employment opportunities. An internship allowance of Rs 5,000 per month along with a one-time assistance of Rs 6,000 will be provided. Companies will be expected to bear the training cost and 10 per cent of the internship cost from their CSR funds,” Sitharaman had said.