New Delhi: Modi government’s flagship Prime Minister Internship Scheme (PMIS) is partnering with the National Cadet Corps (NCC) and MY Bharat (Mera Yuva Bharat) to expand grassroots awareness and improve participation, as the scheme looks to overcome the tepid response seen in the first two pilot rounds.
The collaboration is part of a broader effort to revamp PMIS by strengthening outreach and making the internship process more accessible to young applicants.
Launched in 2024, PMIS aims to provide internship opportunities to one crore youth over five years, with the objective of making young candidates more employable through industry exposure.
However, so far only 3,605 youth have completed internships till March 2026, since the commencement of the scheme in October 2024.
While NCC is India’s youth wing of the armed forces, MY Bharat operates under the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports and aims to promote youth development through civic engagement.
“Through this collaboration we are focusing on whole of government approach to spread awareness at grassroot level about internships and enhance stakeholder consultation,” a government source told ThePrint on condition of anonymity.
As part of the initiative, NCC and MY Bharat are helping create awareness about the scheme among youth and mobilising interested candidates to recruitment camps organised by participating companies.
At these camps, candidates can interact directly with employers, understand internship roles, discuss office location and clarify their queries before appearing for the interviews. Candidates can also complete their application process and sit for interviews in a single visit.
However, offer letters are issued at a later date by the participating companies.
“The entire process allows candidates to ask questions employers about the role, responsibilities and company culture. This brings transparency to the process and also gives confidence to candidates,” the official said.
According to the government source, these pilot camps have so far been conducted in Pune and Mumbai, where Lemon Tree and Mahindra & Mahindra together offered nearly 300 internship positions and around 70 percent participating candidates were shortlisted.
These camps are also aimed at reducing hiring timelines. The official said the conventional online process takes around 30-45 days, from companies posting internship opportunities and candidates applying to interviews to offer letters being issued.
But these camps have shortened the selection process by completing multiple stages of the process in a single day.
According to Rajesh Kumar, senior vice president of human resources at Lemon Tree Hotels, the recruitment camps have delivered an encouraging response, with candidates demonstrating enthusiasm, professionalism and a genuine interest in building careers in the hospitality industry.
“In the first phase of the recruitment drive, we offered internship opportunities across key functions such as front office, human resources, sales and finance,” Kumar told ThePrint. “The candidates arrived well-prepared, displayed a positive attitude, and were eager to learn and contribute. As a result, we successfully selected more than 60 interns across Pune and Mumbai.”
Encouraged by the overwhelming response and the quality of talent identified during the first phase, Lemon Tree Hotels is now planning to conduct another round of recruitment camps in Pune and Mumbai in collaboration with PMIS team and the NCC in the next few months.
The outreach initiative comes months after the government overhauled the scheme ahead of the launch of the third round in April. The changes included a higher stipend, a wider age bracket and a shorter internship duration to attract more applicants.
Under the revised structure, the monthly stipend has been increased to Rs 9,000 from Rs 5,000 earlier. Of this, Rs 8,100 will be paid by the government, while Rs 900 will come from employers through their corporate social responsibility (CSR) funds.
The eligible age group was also expanded to 18-25 years from the earlier 21-24 years, while the internship duration has been reduced to 6-9 months from 12 months.
The official said internship opportunities under the third round will continue until December and that the initial response has been better than in previous rounds. However, the complete outcome will only be known after the current round concludes.
Launched in October 2024, PMIS has struggled to convert offers into internships. In the first round, participating companies made over 82,000 internship offers to more than 60,000 candidates. However, only 8,760 candidates joined.
The second round, launched in April 2025, followed a similar trend. More than 83,000 internship offers were made to over 71,000 candidates, but only around 7,300 candidates joined.
Across the first two rounds, more than 7,200 interns exited the programme before completing their internships. As of March 2026, only 3,605 interns had completed the full 12-month internship.
(Edited by Viny Mishra)
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