Leading companies from India Inc such as ITC, Reliance Retail and TCS have started hiring interns under the central government’s new PM Internship Scheme launched on October 3. The new interns are being hired for across roles such as sales, marketing, entrepreneurship and farm-focused roles, reported The Economic Times.
About the scheme
According to the Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) portal, candidates should be between 21 and 24 years of age, not having full time jobs. They should have passed a minimum of Class 10 and have annual household income of less than ₹8 lakh in 2023-24 to be eligible for application under the new job scheme. The scheme excludes post-graduates.
It aims to offer a monthly stipend of ₹5,000 for a year to 1 crore interns who are expected to join top 500 companies over the next five years. The top 500 companies for the scheme have been identified on the basis of their average CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) expenditure in the last three years.
Interested candidates should register themselves on the MCA portal www.pminternship.mca.gov.in, following which their documents will be matched with companies’ requirements. These companies will then hire candidates based on skills and need.
More than 2,200 internship opportunities have been listed on the portal for the scheme, launched on a pilot basis.
Companies hiring interns
Adani Group, Coca-Cola, Eicher, Deloitte, Mahindra Group, Maruti Suzuki, PepsiCo, HDFC, Wipro, ICICI, Hindustan Unilever, Samsung and Hewlett Packard are among 500 firms to have listed themselves under the scheme.
The Mahindra Group is set to hire 2,100 interns across multiple businesses. A majority of these opportunities will come from the company’s auto and farm equipment sector, while Mahindra Finance will also hire 100 interns.
A senior executive from a leading firm told The Economic Times that the stipend needs to be increased.
The stipend amount is minimal and should be definitely increased to help youth who are not employed and incentivise applicants. “Considering that large companies have onboarded as partners in the scheme, perhaps the companies may themselves increase the stipend amount,” he added.