Energy, automotive, banking sectors offer most of internships under PM scheme

New Delhi: Energy, automotive, banking and financial services and the travel and tourism sectors have the highest number of internships on offer for candidates registering under the PM internship scheme, according to data available from the ministry of corporate affairs.

These sectors together account for two-thirds of the over 125,000 internships that businesses have brought to the table so far under scheme. 

Among these, oil, gas and energy account for over 29,100 internship opportunities, followed by over 22,000 offers from the automotive sector. 

Travel and tourism industry offers 15,639 internships while 12,265 opportunities are there in the banking and financial services, showed data. Sectors like metals and mining and manufacturing are also offering between 8,000-9,000 internships each.

The government last month set up a dedicated portal for candidates to register for the scheme and is now planning to formally roll out the scheme for which arrangements are being put in place, said a person informed about the development. 

Target was to shortlist 100,000 candidates

When the pilot project was rolled out last month, the target was to shortlist 100,000 candidates for internships by December.

The plan announced in the union budget for FY25 aims internships to 10 million persons in five years, in top 500 companies. So far, about 280 companies, including Jubilant Foodworks Ltd., Maruti Suzuki India Ltd., Oil and Natural Gas Corp. Ltd., Reliance Industries Ltd. and Eicher Motors Ltd. have offered internships, data showed. 

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh have the highest share of internships spread across 745 districts in the country.

Aditya Ghosh, Chairman of CII National Committee on Skill Development and Livelihood and Co-Founder of Akasa Air said the scheme marks a significant step toward Industry-led skilling. 

“We have seen very positive response from the industry in the pilot phase, with more than 125,000 internship being posted on the portal. We have representation not only from manufacturing and automotive, but also from banking and financial services, oil and gas, energy, retail, hospitality, healthcare, IT-ITES, life sciences, steel and so on. Many internships are being offered in tier two and tier three cities, including rural areas, bringing opportunities directly to candidates rather than requiring them to relocate,” said Ghosh.

Ghosh said that response from candidates is also great, with more than 300,000 candidates registering on the PM internship portal. “These candidates will not only gain practical work experience, skills and knowledge in the top 500 companies in India, but will also be mentored industry experts, enhancing their employability,” said Ghosh.

The scheme comes at a time labour market is undergoing a shift due to digitisation and greater automation, which demand newer skills among job seekers. Experts say technological progress and productivity gains, rather than employment, were the factors driving growth in the recent past. 

A widely noted feature of growth in the Indian economy over the two decades is rising labour productivity accompanied by capital deepening at the economy level, International Labour Organisation and New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development said in their ‘India Employment Report 2024’ brought out in March this year. In many of the emerging sectors, both in services and manufacturing, capital intensity is high, the report said, while suggesting macroeconomic, industrial and sectoral investment and trade policies to expand jobs in labour intensive sectors. 

The PM internship scheme targets candidates from the economically disadvantaged section of the society by excluding those from families with income above ₹8 lakh in FY24 and from families with any member having permanent government employment. Also, those with professional degrees offered by the Indian Institutes of Technology, the Indian Institutes of Management and National Law Universities are not eligible. So are chartered accountants and MBBS degree holders.