Govt says ₹48 crore spent so far for PM Internship Scheme pilot project

Around ₹48 crore has been spent so far for the pilot project of the Prime Minister's Internship Scheme and the corporate affairs ministry is gathering feedback from stakeholders to assess the impact of the scheme.

On Monday, the ministry informed Lok Sabha that in the first round of the pilot project, companies offered more than 1.27 lakh opportunities and the second round commenced on January 9.

The scheme, announced in the 2024-25 Budget, aims to provide internship opportunities to 1 crore youth in the top 500 companies in 5 years.

On October 3, 2024, the ministry launched the scheme's pilot project that targets to provide internship opportunities to 1.25 lakh youth in the 2024-25 financial year.

"For the pilot project of the scheme, an amount of ₹840 crore has been approved. So far, approximately ₹48 crore have been spent," Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in a written reply.

The scheme's guidelines provide for the setting up of a monitoring and steering committee comprising all stakeholders, including industry representatives to oversee design implementation, operations and other aspects.

Also, a concurrent Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) framework will be there to enable tracking of the outcomes as well as ensure corrective actions during the course of implementation of the pilot project.

"Additionally, the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA), is gathering feedback from various stakeholders and analysing the scheme's impact as it continues to be implemented," Minister of State for Corporate Affairs Harsh Malhotra said in a separate written reply.

The list of the top 500 companies for the scheme is selected on the basis of average Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure in the last 3 years. Participation of the companies in this scheme is voluntary.