Launching a new mobile app for candidates to access the Pradhan Mantri Internship Scheme, Finance and Corporate Affairs Minister Nirmala Sitharaman urged more companies to participate in the flagship programme.
“I appeal to industry that more companies should come forward and participate in the scheme...we need to give more confidence to our youth,” the Finance Minister said on Monday after launching the new app.
The minister highlighted that the PMIS helps youths understand the job market and companies can contribute to the country and the economy by participating in the scheme.
The second pilot round of the PMIS is currently underway and the FM noted that more companies have come forward to put up opportunities in the scheme and all 735 districts of the country have been covered by it. A total of 325 companies have put up 1.18 lakh internship opportunities under the second pilot round of the scheme.
The FM underlined that the mobile app makes it more accessible to candidates to register for internships.
As per an official release, the app includes features such as easy registration through Aadhaar face authentication, personalised dashboard, access to a dedicated support team as well as real time alerts to keep candidates abreast of new updates.
Sources said the decision to launch the app was taken after feedback from candidates that several of them faced difficulties in accessing computers and the Common Service Centres to register for the scheme.
Deepti Gaur Mukherjee, Secretary, Ministry of Corporate Affairs said that there has been robust participation for the second pilot. "About 1.15 lakh applicants have registered for the scheme and a total of 2.4 lakh applications have been received. The process is still ongoing," she said.
The government has recently extended the deadline for registration under the scheme to March 31. It is expected that candidates will hit the shopfloor by May 15.
Sources said the government will keep launching further rounds of the PMIS to meet the needs of the industry as well as candidates with subsequent rounds likely to be rolled out every two to three months.
The government would also consider widening the ambit of the scheme to include companies beyond the top 500 companies based on their average CSR spends in the last three years. Several companies were unable to participate due to various reasons such as being in losses. About 49 companies have also been in touch with the government to participate in the PMIS although they are not a part of the top 500 firms.
The first round of the scheme’s pilot project was launched on October 3 and over 127,000 internship opportunities were provided. A total of 28,141 applicants accepted offers at the time as per data shared with Parliament by the ministry of corporate affairs. Sources indicated that just about 8,000 to 10,000 applicants finally joined the internship with challenges over moving costs being seen as a key issue.
Sources said that in the second pilot round several new facilities are being offered to candidates by companies. Further, the location of the internship opportunity is also being shown to the candidate.