FM Sitharaman opens first PM internship scheme centre in Kolkata

The government remains committed to simplifying business regulations, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation and skill development culture, the FM said.

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on May 1 inaugurated the first PM Internship Scheme (PMIS) facilitation centre in the city of Kolkata, saying that the centre will help youth with internship and making informed career choices.

The minister suggested that the facilitation-centre will be an absolute hub of the PMIS and provide "end-to-end" support to young people to steer through their internship process.

Through PMIS, we intend to democratize exposure to opportunities of upskilling. With collaborative engagement, we seek to empower young people, build workforce, and create inclusive growth for the nation," stated the minister in relation to the programme aimed at addressing gaps between learning through school and demand of industry.

"Through this phase of rapidly changing global scenario, our conviction is that the key to economic resilience is to build domestic efficiencies and competitiveness," she went on to say.

The PMIS centre has been set up at the Corporate Bhawan in collaboration with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

These centres will be opened all across the nation to benefit the youth as well as even the companies which have come aboard the government with the scheme.

As proposed in the FY26 Budget, PMIS aims to arrange internships for up to 10 million youths in best firms in the coming five years. During the first phase, 28,141 candidates who took internship offers despite the offer having been made to 82,077.

In FY25, the ministry targeted 125,000 internship opportunities for candidates in 500-partner firms selected on the basis of average Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) expenditure over the previous three years. It includes a broad spectrum of industries like defence and aviation, automotive, banking and financial services, chemical industry, oil, gas and energy.

The government remains committed to ease of doing business, encouraging entrepreneurship, institution-building that guarantees fairness and accountability in corporate governance, the minister further added.

The government has been undertaking various efforts to improve ease of doing business and improve corporate governance through various steps, including digital initiatives, ease of tax structures and reducing the red tape, Sitharman further added.

"Special attention to the reforms for the private sector is not only on large businesses but also on MSMEs," she further added.

Reiterating government's intentions, the Budget had suggested a high-level committee on regulatory reforms to promote trust-based economic governance and transformational measures to improve EODB, especially in sectors of inspections and compliances, the minister further added.