The Ministry of Corporate Affairs is all set to roll out its Internship scheme, which is part of the Modi government budget 2024-25. The prime minister’s ‘Package for Employment and Skilling’ has been allotted an overall budget of ₹2 lakh crore. India’s top 500 companies will be selected to be part of this scheme. The catch here is that these companies will be selected based on their corporate social responsibility or CSR performance over the last five years.
What is this Internship scheme all about and how corporate social responsibilities by companies is helping the government boost employment in India this year?
Government’s Internship Program
The Government of India has decided to partner with the formal sector of the Indian economy (both corporate and semi-government) to come up with an internship program for students of the economically marginalised sections. The one-year Internship scheme was rolled out this month by launching an online portal for all the applicants. These applicants will directly apply to get internships with India’s 500 top companies whose performance in corporate social responsibility has been commendable.
The portal will work by listing Internship opportunities by the companies, followed by registration by applicants in the portal. But to ensure that applications are received from houses actually in need of employment, a few criteria have been set for eligibility. These include an age bracket of 21 to 24 years. Candidates who have acquired education from esteemed institutes like IIT or IIM and candidates and those whose family has government employees will not be eligible for the internship program. However, applicants from Kaushal Kendra and ITI can apply in the portal.
The selection process will also involve digital and governmental checks to avoid biases. A backend bot of the portal will screen all applicants to shortlist a few, who will later be tested by the company. If the company rejects the applicant, the portal will revert back to the applicant, to eventually start a new cycle of selection. The naming of the candidate by the portal will ensure that the company does not pick out a certain category of applicants over the other, tackling the problem of lower employability.
The internship program will offer ₹5000, out of which ₹4500 will be provided by the government under direct cash transfer (DCT) while ₹500 will be contributed by the company itself, from its CSR fund. Companies can also tie up with other companies working in the supply chain to rule out internship opportunities. This will increase the ambit of the internship to a larger number of companies, that can offer more diverse internship programs.
As per the scheme, a company can decide to pay its intern more than ₹5000, but anything above 500 will be borne by the company itself and not be part of its CSR fund. This clause will help in increasing the number of people employed, instead of picking out a handful of applicants only.
Twin Problem of Employment and Responsible CSR
This particular intervention by the government will solve the problem of employment in India and will also be a push towards responsible use of CSR funds by the companies. In India, CSR is mandated by the law and is a compulsory practice for companies generating good profit. But often companies spend their CSR funds irresponsibly by conducting big events and running campaigns that do not bring about any real change. Often CSR initiatives are also carried by companies to satisfy legal obligations and their planning is not intended towards making the lives of people better.
This initiative will call for more responsible use of CSR funds by the company. The fact that corporate social responsibility made it to this year’s national budget tells us about its growing value in the times to come.
This scheme will also bridge the gap between classroom education and the actual work environment that students will have to face after they graduate. For the companies also, this scheme will help provide a youth-based workforce who will find greater chances of employability in both MSMEs and MNCs.
“With industries grappling with a growing talent shortage, the PM Internship Scheme provides a crucial bridge. By offering on-the-job training to youth, it will prepare them to meet the evolving Industry demands, while ensuring that businesses get access to a skilled and agile future workforce, fostering progress and innovation,” told Chandrajit Banerjee, Director General of CII, two daily Newspaper The Indian Express.
After its launch on the 2nd of October, the portal has successfully registered more than 1.5 lakh applicants, according to the Press Information Bureau. These numbers are to increase over the remaining days of October.
