The Internship Experiment

A look at the varied experiences of Prime Minister's Internship Scheme — what's working, what's not, and what it's teaching India's youth

- Georgie Koithara & Ruchika Chitravanshi

At the Pune office of a technology major, Yash Padwalkar from Solapur (Maharashtra) began by upskilling in cloud computing and data engineering before gradually taking on real tasks. A BTech in computer engineering from Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University, Padwalkar says when he applied for the Prime Minister's Internship Scheme (PMIS), he didn't even own a laptop. "I was learning programming on YouTube, on my phone."

Besides a laptop, the scheme, he adds, gave him access to premium learning resources and the kind of industry exposure that would have otherwise been elusive.

Running as a pilot project since October 2024, the scheme aims to bring India's youth up to speed with the skill sets the industry requires. It intends to do so by providing year-long internships to 10 million youth in India's top 500 companies over five years.

An assessment of the first round, currently underway, shows that for many, the scheme has served as a transformative entry point into the professional world, though the experience varies by industry, company and individual initiative. A close look at the journeys of some of the interns reveals both shared themes and contrasting outcomes.

Across the board, interns describe a depth of engagement that often exceeds what traditional internships offer. However, how quickly they access meaningful work depends largely on personal initiative and the host organization's culture.

For Padwalkar, the learning curve was steep but supported: "There is a manager who explains things, gives us deadlines, and encourages us to figure things out ourselves." If the interns miss the deadlines, they aren't reprimanded. "Instead, they sit with us, explain what went wrong, and guide us through to a solution."