Beyond One Crore Internships: Evaluating The Employability Impact Of The Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme

Policy Update
Debjani Chatterjee

Background

India is home to one of the world’s largest youth populations, with millions of young people entering the labour market every year. While higher education enrollment has expanded significantly over the past decade, concerns regarding employability continue to persist. Several surveys and labour market studies have repeatedly highlighted a disconnect between academic qualifications and industry requirements. Employers often report skill gaps, inadequate workplace readiness, limited practical exposure, and insufficient professional competencies among graduates.

Against this backdrop, the Government of India announced the Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme (PMIS) in the Union Budget 2024–25 and formally launched it on 3 October 2024. The scheme aims to provide one crore internship opportunities over five years through India’s top 500 companies. Unlike traditional employment programmes that focus on job creation, PMIS seeks to improve employability by providing workplace exposure and industry experience.

The policy rationale behind PMIS is straightforward. If young people can gain structured workplace exposure before entering the labour market, they may develop professional skills, industry familiarity, and practical competencies that enhance their employment prospects. The scheme therefore represents a shift from employment generation to employability enhancement.

However, nearly two years after its launch, an important question remains unanswered: Has PMIS improved employability, or has it merely increased the number of internship opportunities?

This distinction is critical because internships are a means to an end, not an end in themselves. The ultimate objective of PMIS is not to create internship statistics but to improve labour-market outcomes for young Indians.

Functioning

The Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme (PMIS) is administered by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) through a centralized, tech-driven Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model. Its key operational pillars include:

Target Group & Inclusivity: Targets non-employed youth aged 18–24 years holding secondary, diploma, or undergraduate degrees. To ensure equitable reach, graduates from premier institutions (IITs, IIMs, CA/CS) and households with taxable income or government employment are excluded.

Tech-Driven Allocation: Operations are anchored by a central portal (pminternship.mca.gov.in), using automated matching algorithms to align candidate preferences with skill demands across sectors like Manufacturing, BFSI, Logistics, and Services.

Financial Architecture:

Monthly Stipend: ₹9,000/month for 12 months (co-funded via ₹4,500 Govt DBT + ₹500 Corporate CSR contribution).

Incidental Support: One-time joining grant of ₹6,000 for candidates.

Corporate Participation: Engages India’s top 500 companies (based on 3-year average CSR spend). Mandates that at least 50% of the 12-month period involves direct, hands-on workplace exposure rather than classroom training.

Theory of Change:

Targeted Youth → Tech Allocation → 12-Month Industry Exposure → Skill Acquisition → Improved Employability

The effectiveness of PMIS therefore depends not only on the number of internships created but also on the quality, relevance, and outcomes of those internships.

Performance

From a participation perspective, PMIS has generated substantial interest among Indian youth.

Evolution of PMIS (2024–2026)

Year	Major Developments	Key Outcomes
2024	PMIS was formally launched on 3 October 2024 as a pilot initiative under the Union Budget 2024–25.	Around 1.27 lakh internship opportunities were announced across India’s top companies.
2025	The scheme was expanded across districts and sectors, with wider participation from companies and applicants.	More than 6 lakh applications were received, and internship offers were issued to thousands of candidates, reflecting strong initial demand.
2026	The Government introduced policy refinements, including the expansion of eligibility criteria and programme redesign to improve implementation.	Final-year undergraduate and postgraduate students were included, with increased policy emphasis on improving participation, retention, and employability outcomes.

The strong response from applicants suggests that young Indians recognise the importance of workplace experience in an increasingly competitive labour market.

Participation Trajectory

Applications Received ██████████████████████████████████████ 6.21 lakh+

Unique Applicants ███████████ 1.81 lakh+

Offers Issued █████ 82,000+

Offers Accepted ██ 28,000+

Joined Internship █ 8,700+

At first glance, these figures appear impressive. However, a closer examination reveals a significant decline between applications, offers, acceptances, and actual participation.

The data suggest that PMIS has successfully generated demand but has struggled to convert interest into sustained participation. While hundreds of thousands of applications were submitted, the number of candidates ultimately joining internships remained substantially lower.

This pattern indicates that the scheme’s primary challenge is not awareness or demand generation. Rather, it lies in programme conversion and retention.

Furthermore, the government has repeatedly introduced modifications to improve participation. Such policy adjustments suggest that implementation challenges became evident soon after the scheme’s launch.

From a programme management perspective, PMIS can therefore be described as a scheme that has succeeded in attracting applicants but is still searching for an effective model of large-scale internship delivery.

Impact

The central objective of PMIS is to improve employability. Yet this is also the area where evidence remains most limited.

International literature on internships and work-integrated learning suggests that internships can improve labour-market outcomes under specific conditions. Structured internships often contribute to improved employment prospects, workplace readiness, professional networks, and wage outcomes.

However, research also demonstrates that not all internships generate meaningful employability gains. Internship quality matters. Structured mentoring, relevant assignments, skill development opportunities, and career-oriented learning experiences are often more important than the mere existence of an internship.

This insight is particularly relevant for PMIS.

Current assessments of the scheme focus primarily on participation indicators:

Applications received
Internship opportunities created
Offers issued
Candidates joined

Emerging Issues

While these indicators help assess programme reach, they provide limited information regarding programme impact.

At present, publicly available data do not provide systematic answers to many questions.

Consequently, PMIS is currently measured through participation outcomes rather than employability outcomes.

This distinction lies at the heart of the policy debate. A programme may create thousands of internship opportunities without necessarily improving employability. Unless post-internship outcomes are measured, it is impossible to determine whether PMIS is achieving its core objective.

1. Participation Versus Employability

The most important issue surrounding PMIS is the growing gap between participation metrics and employability outcomes.

Current evaluations emphasise applications, offers, and joining rates. However, these indicators do not reveal whether participants become more employable after completing internships.

As a result, policymakers currently know how many internships were offered but not how many careers were created.

2. Location Mismatch

Many internship opportunities are concentrated in metropolitan and industrial centres such as Delhi NCR, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune.

For candidates from rural areas and smaller towns, relocation can impose significant financial and social costs.

This appears to be one of the key reasons behind lower joining rates and programme attrition.

The scheme may therefore have underestimated the importance of geographical accessibility in shaping participation decisions.

3. Financial Viability

Financial sustainability has emerged as another important concern.

Although interns receive financial support, living costs in metropolitan cities often exceed available assistance. Accommodation, transportation, food, and other expenses can create barriers for economically weaker participants.

In practice, a uniform support structure may not adequately account for regional differences in living costs. For instance, a uniform stipend of ₹9,000 per month may suffice for an intern residing in a Tier-2 town or living at home, but creates a severe financial deficit in metropolitan cities like Mumbai or Bengaluru, where average PG rent alone ranges from ₹7,000 to ₹10,000

As a result, participation may become disproportionately difficult for candidates from lower-income backgrounds.

4. Internship Quality and Learning Outcomes

Another concern relates to the quality of internship experiences.

Several participant accounts and media reports suggest that some internships involve routine administrative work, documentation, record management, data entry, and support functions.

While such tasks may provide workplace exposure, they do not necessarily promote significant skill development.

Without systematic assessment of learning outcomes, the employability impact of PMIS remains difficult to evaluate.

5. Role Relevance and Skill Mismatch

Many reported internship opportunities appear concentrated in sales, marketing, outreach, and support functions.

Although such roles are valuable in specific contexts, they may not always align with participants’ educational backgrounds and career aspirations.

An engineering graduate, finance student, or social science researcher may derive limited professional benefit if assigned responsibilities unrelated to their skills and interests.

Role relevance is therefore an important determinant of employability outcomes.

6. Retention Challenges

Retention has emerged as one of the most significant implementation challenges facing PMIS.

Retention and Completion Outcomes

The data indicate that a substantial number of participants left the programme before completion.

High attrition rates are often indirect indicators of deeper challenges relating to programme design, financial viability, internship quality, or participant expectations.

Consequently, retention should be viewed not merely as an administrative issue but as a measure of programme effectiveness.

7. Absence of Outcome Tracking

Perhaps the most significant limitation of PMIS is the absence of a comprehensive employability measurement framework.

What PMIS Measures and What It Does Not

Currently Measured	Largely Unmeasured
Applications	Employment conversion
Internship opportunities	Wage gains
Offers issued	Career progression
Joining rates	Skill acquisition outcomes
Internship completion	Long-term employability

This gap highlights a fundamental challenge.

A programme designed to improve employability should ultimately be evaluated through employment outcomes rather than participation statistics.

Yet current monitoring systems remain overwhelmingly participation-centric.

Way Forward

To maximise its long-term impact, PMIS must shift its focus from internship creation to employability creation.

First, the government should establish a comprehensive Employability Outcomes Dashboard. Such a system should track employment conversion rates, wage outcomes, pre-placement offers, and career progression.

Second, tracer studies should be institutionalised. Participants should be followed six months, twelve months, and twenty-four months after programme completion. Such evidence would provide valuable insights into labour-market outcomes.

Third, internship quality standards should be strengthened. Participating companies should be required to provide structured mentorship, defined learning objectives, and regular performance feedback.

Fourth, role matching mechanisms should be improved to ensure that internship assignments align with participants’ qualifications and career aspirations.

Fifth, financial support mechanisms should account for regional variations in living costs. A cost-of-living-sensitive support model would improve accessibility for economically disadvantaged candidates.

Finally, greater emphasis should be placed on high-growth sectors such as artificial intelligence, data analytics, renewable energy, advanced manufacturing, fintech, and digital services. Such sectors are likely to generate stronger employability outcomes in the future.

The Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme represents one of India’s most ambitious attempts to address the employability challenge facing its youth. Since its launch in 2024, the programme has generated substantial interest and expanded access to workplace exposure across the country.

However, evidence from the first two years suggests that participation alone cannot be treated as evidence of success. Concerns relating to joining rates, retention, internship quality, financial viability, and role relevance continue to shape the programme’s trajectory.Most importantly, there remains limited evidence regarding whether PMIS has improved employability outcomes. Current assessments focus primarily on applications, offers, and participation, while employment conversion, wage gains, career mobility, and skill acquisition remain largely unmeasured.

The success of PMIS should ultimately be judged not by the number of internships offered but by the number of employable young Indians it helps create.

Selected References and Important Links

1. Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA). Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme Portal.

PM Internship Scheme Portal (Press Information Bureau)

2.Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme – Pilot Project (3 October 2024).

PIB: PM Internship Scheme – Pilot Project Launch (Press Information Bureau)

3.Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Prime Minister’s Internship Scheme: Empowering Youth, Enabling Careers (21 March 2025).

PIB: PMIS – Empowering Youth, Enabling Careers (Press Information Bureau)

4.Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Launch of PM Internship Scheme Mobile App (17 March 2025).

PIB: Launch of PM Internship Scheme App (Press Information Bureau)

5.Lok Sabha & Rajya Sabha Parliamentary Questions on PM Internship Scheme.

Parliament Questions Portal (Sansad)

About the Contributor

Debjani Chatterjee is a policy researcher with a background in Finance and Political Science. Her work focuses on leveraging data analytics to support evidence-based policy research.

Acknowledgment

The author sincerely thanks the Impact and Policy Research Institute (IMPRI) for the opportunity to prepare this policy update article. IMPRI’s dedication to connecting research with actionable policy practice provides an invaluable platform for learning.

Reviewed by Vishal Kumar and Paridhi Passi

Publisher: Pallavi Lad

Disclaimer: All views expressed in the article belong solely to the author and do not necessarily represent the views or policies of the organisation.